


Welcome to Winnermart

by Hikaru Yuy (SailorVFan10)



Series: Winnermart [1]
Category: Gundam Wing, Weiß Kreuz
Genre: Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Alternate Universe - Retail, Angst, Canon Compliant, Crossovers & Fandom Fusions, F/F, F/M, Humor, Implied/Referenced Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, M/M, Multi, OT3, POV Multiple, Polyamory, Post-Series, Romance, Slice of Life, Substance Abuse, Take Your Fandom to Work Day
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-04-16
Updated: 2017-06-23
Packaged: 2018-06-02 15:11:40
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 43,507
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6571054
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SailorVFan10/pseuds/Hikaru%20Yuy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Heero Yuy used to be a Preventers, but thanks to a mission that went terribly wrong, coupled with the wars that continue to haunt him despite them being over and done with for nine years, he has a lot of guilt that ended up ruining his relationships one after the other, not to mention ruining his life to the point where the only job he can hold down is retail. Duo Maxwell was discharged from Preventers after a mission nearly killed his partner, who he ended up leaving at their apartment after a fight because he believes it's for his own good--he's cursed and everyone he's ever loved has died. Dishonourable discharge looks terrible on a résumé, so the only jobs that'll take him are retail ones, which he's technically overqualified for. And Quatre Winner, CEO of WEI, is sent down to Winnermart #6969 to try to see if it's even worth salvaging, knowing if he can't save it, 300 people will be out of a job, and it will be his fault. It is this event that brings three seemingly three different paths together.</p>
<p>Welcome to Winnermart.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. September 23, AC 205 - Part 1

**Author's Note:**

> This chapter's summary: Duo Maxwell absolutely loathes working in Health and Beauty Aids (HBA). Some days he's better at hiding it than other days. Some days he can sugarcoat it to people he works with, as if it's not that bad. But today, Duo's bad at hiding it, and wants out.
> 
> Author's notes: This chapter might end up being a little confusing at first, but when I post the next two chapters, it'll shed a little bit of light. Each chapter fills in the gaps that the last one leaves and explains things a bit more. Since the beginning has three different point of views and combining them into one chapter felt really weird (not to mention some of the switches would have caused mental whiplash), I figured it would be easier (and best) to do it this way. It won't ALWAYS be this way--in chapter three things will merge for a little bit before splitting off again temporarily.
> 
> As always, feedback and kudos are appreciated! This is a universe I've been RPing in for almost three years now so it's very vast and I tried to translate things as best as I could for the fic version.

_September 23, AC 205_

_6:27am_

On some days, Duo felt like he lived here. His last shift ended at 11pm, but he didn't leave until around midnight, and his next shift started at 6:30am. On days like this, he didn't even bother going home, he would just try out every video game demo in Electronics, gain a few Pokemon levels or beat a Gym Leader in one of his Pokemon handheld games, or watch videos on Youtube on his phone while eating fast food in his car out in the parking lot. Sometimes he would sleep for a couple of hours and then just change clothes in the bathroom, using a fresh set from the go-back he kept in his trunk.

Some habits from his Preventers days had yet to leave him, despite the fact that he had left a couple of years ago after a mission nearly killed him and his partner, which in turn led to his personal life going down the drain because when the guy you were partnered up with at Preventers was also your boyfriend, and you nearly got him killed and nearly died rescuing him, that tended to happen.

The breakup wasn't even a breakup--he had just left one day. The one time he had ever broken a promise. He cracked open another energy drink and chugged half of it.

_He's better off anyway_.

Duo wasn't bitter about it, but even he had to admit he still had regrets. What else was new? Duo tried convincing himself that they were better off separate--after all, he was cursed, wasn't he? Everyone he had ever cared about ended up getting hurt or worse, and that had nearly happened twice--both on Preventers missions--to someone Duo thought was indestructible.

Well. His partner didn't die either of those times, but the second time he thought for sure--

Duo screwed his eyes shut, rubbed at them with the heel of his palm.

There was so much blood and they were both covered, he was pretty sure he was gonna die right there in his arms, just like Sister, just like--

Duo lit a cigarette and took a huge drag off it before chugging what was left of his energy drink.

_How fuckin' pathetic am I, goin' over the past in my piece of shit car, surrounded by food wrappers, like some piece of shit slummer who lives in a store parking lot?_

* * *

"You're out of dress code again, Duo."

Duo looked at his clothes. Black pants, blue shirt, Winnermart jacket... He looked at his department manager in confusion.

"Those are jeans. You know policy states--"

_I don't care what policy states, you're lucky I haven't transferred to another department since I'm the only worker ever here._

"So you want me to muck up nice pants instead of some ratty old jeans? I don't have the money to constantly buy new slacks."

Duo opened one of the shrink wrapped pallets and watched as box after box toppled to the ground. He and his manager watched as an upright nail polish display toppled over due to said boxes falling on top of it, sending glass bottles of nail polish to various parts of the floor with a crash.

"It's too early for this shit."

Sue, his department manager, started walking away.

"You expect me to clean this up by myself?"

"Oh, no," she said over her shoulder. "I'm getting you supplies that will help you clean it."

Duo stood there surrounded by boxes and broken glass, staring at her in disbelief.

"So who the hell's gonna help me?!"

"Go ask Kate if she has anyone!"

_Seriously? What kind of manager are you?!_

She came back a few minutes later with two bottles of multi-purpose cleaner and a roll of paper towels.

"Here you go!"

Sue walked off into the Foods department, where Duo knew she would spend the next few hours doing nothing but bullshitting with the associates there.

_I fucking hate this department._

"HBA call on line two. HBA, call on line two, please."

Duo looked at his watch as he sank to his knees to get started on the broken glass.

"We're not even open yet and already there's a phone call?"

"Duo?" his department manager called from the frozen section two aisles away. "Can you answer that?"

Duo lifted a box and found his hands covered in some kind of hand cream. Or what was left of it after the bottle exploded from a box landing on it. Duo grimaced.

"Duo?"

"I'm kinda busy at the moment."

Duo looked at the mess of cardboard and got up on his feet.

_I'm askin' Kate for help and maybe a transfer to a department that doesn't suck so much._

* * *

_8:40am_

"I need an associate from the following departments to customer service for their returns," Ray began. "Hardware, Housewares, Apparel, Domestics, Toys, Foods, Shoes, Electronics, Sporting Goods, HBA..."

Duo rolled his eyes as he approached the front end ZS, who was currently by register thirteen checking the price on something.

"Hey, uh, Kate?"

She looked up. "What's up?"

"I saw on the Career Portal that you were looking for a CSM."

Right at that moment, CSM Mark said over the walkie, "Department Manager Sue, can you _please_ come up for returns? You have two carts and a full bin."

"I ain't goin' up there for HBA shit, she's done nothin' all mornin'."

Kate sighed and responded, "Ray, please page for Sue overhead. I have a feeling she turned her walkie off a while ago." She looked at the customer on register thirteen. "The price is ringing up as $14.95, but since it's our fault it was in the wrong spot, just give it to them for $10.95."

Turning her full attention back to Duo, she said, "Sorry. Yeah, I am looking for a CSM. As you can see, the one who opened is nowhere to be found, and my mid-shift hasn't come in yet, so it's just me up here. And Ray, but he's service desk, and I can't pull him or Al will have my head for leaving Heero alone."

_Heero?_ Duo held his breath in an attempt to slow his heart rate, which was somewhat successful. _Nah. It's coincidence. There's gotta be at least two other people just on L1 who have that name._

"R-Right..." Duo didn't dare look over at service desk. "Well, I applied for it, and I know that don't help right now, but it's either I become a CSM, or I murder my department manager, and being an ex-Preventer, jail wouldn't treat me well." He grinned. "'Sides, orange ain't my colour."

Kate nodded slowly. "I will pull you through the req today. Um... Are you register trained?"

Duo nodded.

"Okay then, what about service desk?"

"No, but it can't be that hard to figure out."

Kate consulted her palm pilot. "Quattro is over there right now, but I can pull him once the mid-shift comes in at 10:30..."

"I'll be on lunch at that point."

"Okay. I can put you on once you come back from lunch. You'd be on with Ray, Heero, and...Rochelle. Let's go introduce you."

And before Duo could protest against that (and have to come up with a--likely really terribly unconvincing--way out of it), Kate was already pushing him towards customer service.

If this _was_ the Heero he thought it was, it would be the first time in... Duo took a huge breath as he did the maths. Six months? Eight months? After a while everything blurred together for him.

"This is Duo," Kate said, once they were at the line free customer service. "You already know Quattro." She gestured to Ray. "That's Ray, and that's Rochelle." She pointed at the girl with streaked red hair.

"And...Heero is...?"

"He's on break," Ray said. "He should be back shortly."

"Duo will be joining you guys in time for the lunch rush," Kate said. "Until then he'll be with Cheyenne. I want to make sure he knows the register well."

"So we got another CSM then?" Ray asked. "Outside of like, me and Mark."

"I still have to interview him, but I'll be watching him _very_ carefully to make sure he's a good fit." She smiled at Duo. "But I don't think I should have problems from someone who is ex-Preventers."

"I don't think you should either, considering Heero's also ex-Preventers and he seems okay."

Duo internally screamed.

_Out of all the Heero Yuys there could possibly be in the Earth Sphere, I end up workin' with my ex._

Just one more way life liked to screw with him.


	2. September 23, AC 205 - Part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Quatre decides to play Undercover Boss and nearly screws it all up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A bit more is revealed with this chapter. Feedback and kudos are always welcome, as always!

_September 23, AC 205_

_4am_

Quatre hated long shuttle flights, especially ones that went into the wee hours of the morning. He had tried to sleep throughout the trip, but Jeff's constant phone calls kept jolting him awake just as he was lulled to sleep. Then the texts started, to the point where Quatre ended up with 'phantom phone vibrations' against his leg, that sensation one normally got when they texted too much, or at least received too many texts daily.

_I guess I could just sleep when I'm at the hotel_ , Quatre thought. _Or dead._

* * *

_5:45am_

Quatre, against his better judgment, jackhammered two Five Hour Energy drinks. The hotel he was staying at seemed to have an endless supply of them over by the mini bar, and since he received maybe an hour total in terms of sleep (thanks to his overbearing personal assistant) and had work in less than an hour according to the time on the cable box.

_It's enough time for a shower at least_.

He ignored the buzzing sound that came from the dresser his phone was sitting on, and headed for the bathroom instead, where hopefully he could find some kind of peace and quiet for fifteen minutes.

Or he could just fall asleep in the shower for a half hour and end up running late for his Undercover Boss stint. That worked too.

Quatre paid no attention to his still wet hair and instead focused on trying to find where the hell his hourly associate disguise was in the five pieces of luggage he had brought with him (of which he only needed maybe two of them tops, but Jeff had insisted he bring enough clothes for a 'colonial emergency').

_Why did I let Jeff pack my suitcases?_ He found a not terribly wrinkled button down that was the correct Winnermart White (which some retail establishments called a 'soft white' and thus made it hard for there to be any sort of 'uniformity' when picking out clothing) and decided his usual khaki slacks were fine.

His cell phone went off and Quatre cursed.

"Dammit, Jeff, just leave me alone for an hour or two!"

The blond took a deep breath and counted to ten before letting it go to voicemail and instead focused on finding socks. Once he found a pair in the strangest place ( _Why were they in with my toiletries?_ ), he put them on and then hastily assembled the rest of his clothing so he could walk out of the hotel looking presentable and also somewhat plain looking, totally not like the multi-billionaire CEO he walked in as in a suit and tie with a Bluetooth earpiece glued to his face.

He took a quick glance in the mirror and while he looked decidedly 'ordinary', he still looked like Quatre Raberba Winner, just in a white button down and khakis. Quatre ran a hand through his still damp hair.

_I don't understand why I'm having so much trouble assembling the perfect disguise when I did all those undercover missions with Trowa_.

That thought triggered an idea in his brain, and he ran back to his toiletries bag to find an eyebrow pencil. Quatre was pretty sure if anyone saw that they would question him about it, or maybe they wouldn't, because who would have the audacity to question the Winner Enterprises heir in the first place? He ran back to the mirror and drew a mustache on his face, trying to make it as natural looking as possible and not drawn on like it obviously was. Unlike his Father, Quatre couldn't really grow much facial hair for whatever reason, and what did grow in was fairer than the hair on his head.

That lack of facial hair meant that at age 25, he was still getting carded and accused of faking his ID due to being too 'baby-faced'. Especially if he went out somewhere with Trowa, who was almost six foot, or with Duo, who was _over_ six foot. Heero at least was closer to his height (though still taller), and the only one shorter than him was Wufei. It also didn't help that he was the only baby-faced one--Duo's ended up looking rather chiseled after his last growth spurt and Quatre secretly hoped that eventually he would end up like that too.

Until then, he had to fake it.

He sighed as he examined himself in the mirror. So long as no one got too close, they wouldn't know any better. He made sure that he had his bottle of water (he had seen a lot of cashiers with them during his Winnermart Recon, and figured he should have one as well to blend in), his hotel keycard, and his wallet before heading out for the day.

To the worst Winnermart in Market 69.

Winnermart #6969.

* * *

_6:25am_

The first thing Quatre noticed, upon entering, was the amount of carts left up by customer service, most of which weren't even half full.

_What is the point of that? Who brought these up?_

The place looked spotless otherwise, so whoever closed customer service didn't just say 'screw it' and left them. He made a note of that.

_Now to find the time clock_.

He spotted a girl with light brown hair twisted into a french plait hopping behind the customer service counter and to the computer there behind it.

"Do you know where I can clock in for the day?" He figured it wouldn't hurt to ask, especially since he had five minutes left to be 'on time'. He saw her name badge as she shrugged her Winnermart jacket on: Cheyenne.

_I need to figure out how she says that._

"You can clock in on the ETC right here," she said, as she logged into it. "Just put in your username and password and click 'clock in'." She smiled. "Are you new?"

Quatre nodded. He owned the company that owned Winnermart and outside of business, he had never stepped foot inside one as a customer, let alone as an employee. For all intents and purposes, he _was_ new.

"You'll be fine! I saw Mark outside smoking, and he's an okay CSM. He'll tell you where he wants you--unless you wanna ask Kate?"

Kate Jackson. Quatre knew she was the recently appointed zone supervisor for the front end, but that was about it.

"Between you and me, I'd rather go to her than Mark. She's a lot nicer." She backed away from the computer. "It's all yours...um..."

"Quattro," Quatre said, after spotting a Schick Quattro razor in the HBA cart off to the side. "But everyone calls me Kat."

In reality, only two people called him that, but he didn't care. He wasn't the CEO at this point in time. He stepped behind the counter and tried to block the screen so she wouldn't see him enter 'qrwinner' as his username.

"I'm Shay-anne," she said, making sure to enunciate. Quatre figured she got a lot of customers getting it wrong. "But you can call me 'Chey' if you want. Have you been register trained?"

Quatre clocked in and the system beeped at him.

"Yes." It wasn't technically a lie--he _had_ been. It was just a simulation and all he did was click things, but it couldn't be that difficult. If he could master the ZERO System, he was pretty sure he could master a register.

"Then they might have you over here to get your service desk training in. Corporate wants all cashiers to know register, self check, and customer service, I guess in case there's a coverage shortage or something."

Cheyenne led him over to the CSM podium over by register 18.

"Just wait here, Mark or Kate'll be over in a hot minute." Cheyenne grabbed a box labeled SHOPPING BAGS in sharpie from behind register 17 and began loading up the registers with extra bags.

_At least one person seems to enjoy their job here..._

Quatre noticed two people headed his way. At first he thought the one in the lead was CSM Mark, but as he got closer, Quatre realised he recognised the figure.

_Heero?_ Quatre frowned. _You look terrible._ He would have to ask him what was going on--but not now. He was supposed to be undercover! He knew Heero of all people would be able to see right through his paper thin disguise, and though he also knew Heero wouldn't out him, it would cause people to ask questions.

_Or maybe no one cares about that_.

"Morning, Heero!"

"Morning."

Not even Cheyenne's chipper demeanor could make Heero look less...tired? Quatre couldn't put his finger on what was wrong.

He had to admit, he hadn't seen Heero since that Preventers sponsored Christmas party... When was that? AC 201? _What was the year Duo spiked the punch?_ He would have to ask Heero later. The two hadn't fallen out of touch--Quatre had texted him when he got into his hotel--and Quatre made it a personal mission of sorts to keep in contact with the other four pilots.

_I should have made more of an effort to see him_. Especially since he met up with Trowa and Duo at least once a month.

It used to be much more often than that in Duo's case, but even he dropped off to just text messages and Facebook comments. His latest status was simply, "I hate HBA and everything it stands for." The update before that was "Started at Winnermart L1-NJ862973." Both of those updates were from a couple of weeks ago.

_I have to find out what's going on in this store_.

* * *

Quatre was patiently, perhaps too patiently, waiting for--he took a quick glance at his watch--twenty minutes at the podium for someone to come over and direct him on where to go. He wasn't the only one waiting--there were two people waiting to be let into the admin office for keys to Fitting Room and Electronics, three cashiers waiting for a CSM or someone, and a customer was waiting for someone to reprint their receipt after the self checkout they were at decided to crash right before the receipt could print.

"Sorry, sorry!" A woman with her hair in a rather messy bun ran on over, keys in her hand. "Cashier Hailey ended up getting cut on something in the 82 cart, there was blood everywhere, she needed stitches--it was a mess." She looked around.

"Although I swore I sent my CSM over here to give out register assignments..." She unlocked the door to the admin office and let the two associates inside before returning to the podium, which was right next to the admin office door.

"I need to know where you'd like me to go," Quatre said.

The woman, who Quatre learned via her name badge was ZS Kate, consulted the palm pilot.

"Eile, go to register 7; Rona, please go to register 5; and Maura, please go to register 3. Thanks!"

The three named cashiers went to their respective register assignments.

"As for you..."

"Quattro."

Kate cocked an eyebrow.

"My parents are huge fans of the razor," Quatre said quietly, in an attempt to give his disguise some credibility.

Kate tapped a few things on her palm pilot.

"You can help sort the carts by service desk, shadow a cashier, or--"

"Does anyone know if maintenance is in yet?"

A familiar face poked his head around one of the register displays. His hands were covered in some kind of goo substance.

"Or do I gotta clean that shit up myself?"

Kate sighed. "I can ask if they're here..." She gave Quatre an apologetic look.

"Service desk?"

There was a pause.

"Go for service."

"Can you check the TMAT and see if there's anyone in maintenance?"

Another pause.

"Copy."

Kate's palm pilot beeped, and she cursed at it.

"Where the hell is my CSM?!"

_It seems some people around here don't pull their weight._

"This is the third time in _two days_ where I've had someone who's feckin' incompetent as all dicks put shit on a pallet base and not know that you don't stack the goddamn fragile shit on the bottom and all the heavy shit on top of it." The poor HBA associate came over. A customer at register 17 shot him a look.

"Duo, please calm down--"

"Oh I am calm, I ain't even yellin' yet. It's just I'm sick and tired of comin' in, puttin' in my time, and then I got everyone's messes to clean up. And I spend more time on that shit than I do puttin' out product, and then Al's up my ass about why this hasn't been done and why that hasn't been done, and while I'm into gettin' it up the ass, I'd rather not be fuckin' my boss."

Quatre tried to stifle a laugh.

"Well that's one way to put it," Kate said.

"ZS Kate?"

"Go for Kate."

"We have someone coming in at 8:30."

Kate checked her palm pilot. "That's not for another two hours."

"Correct."

"If I may..." Quatre could tell that Kate was getting stressed out--he recognised all the signs since he experienced it more than enough times with Jeff. "Would it be better if I helped Duo out? At least help him clean up the mess?"

Kate looked to Duo, who shrugged.

"Up to you since he's your cashier."

Kate nodded. "Have him back by 8:30 so he can cover a break and I won't have a problem."

Duo mock-saluted. "Roger that, boss lady!"

The last thing Quatre heard as he followed Duo out of the front end area was Kate asking for the location of her CSM.

* * *

"How do you like working here, if you don't mind me asking?"

Quatre was on his hands and knees scrubbing at a very stubborn mess created by a display of nail polish someone from the overnight crew had incorrectly set up, Duo right next to him cleaning up what was left of the broken glass.

Duo shrugged.

"It's a job, ain't it? Can't complain when I can't really get nothin' else at this point."

"Why is that?"

Duo dumped the broken glass into a plastic bag.

"'Cause I screwed up too many times to do anything I'm actually _qualified_ for." He shrugged again. "But it pays the bills, I ain't starvin', I got a roof over my head. Could be doin' shitloads worse for myself." He smiled and Quatre felt his cheeks warm.

_Not here._

"That's a nice attitude to have," Quatre said, as he squirted more multi-purpose cleaner on the nail polish.

"No one's here to make a career outta this place--we're all just tryin' to survive, is all. And a lot of people here can't even do that 'cause they quit from our Fearless Leader there yellin' and screamin' at everyone because nothin' is ever good enough for him."

_So it's definitely a management issue_ , Quatre thought. _I'll have to pull his file at some point. See what's going on, maybe ask around some more..._

"Well, I think that's about all we can do for this." Duo threw the mess of paper towels into the bag with the broken glass. "Doesn't really matter, there's stains on the floor all over this area from people breakin' shit." He looked at his wrist watch.

"'Kay, I'm gonna show you where we throw our shit out and where claims goes, just in case you end up out on the floor. Then I'll send ya up to service desk since if Mark's workin', he'll be cryin' his break is late or some shit."

Quatre nodded and brushed himself off before following Duo to the backroom.

"I think the person at service desk is He--"

"What a pain in my ass he is, callin' me for this and that..." Duo chucked the plastic bag into the compactor. "And if I don't get returns within two seconds of him callin', he'll make a page again and again until I do. Like I got nothin' else to do except sit 'round with my thumbs up my ass--"

"Who pissed you off today?"

They both turned around and saw none other than Wufei.

_I didn't know Wufei worked here as well..._

"Overnight crew needs to learn common sense, that's what. Killed the nail polish display because glass can totally withstand boxes of shampoo, right? It ain't Gundanium!"

Wufei gave Quatre a look of sympathy.

"Don't mind him, he just complains a lot."

"I got a right to, 'least you're just in the back all day and don't have to deal with people."

Wufei gave the smallest hint of a smile. "Yes. And I did that on purpose."

"Pretty sure he'd kill someone," Duo stage whispered to Quatre.

"Yeah, well, the guy they have up there isn't much better."

That piqued Duo's interest. He crossed his arms and cocked an eyebrow.

"Really? Mark's at that point?"

"No, I meant He--"

"Can you send Quattro up if you see him, Sue?" Kate asked over the walkie.

"Sure, sure."

"Thanks."

Duo sighed. "Probably Mark's whining about his break or whatever. You'd better head up there. Tell him to shut up if he is, don't take his bullshit."

Quatre nodded. "Noted. Thank you, Duo."

The way he said that must have caused a bit of his disguise to slip away, because for a second Quatre thought he saw a glimmer of recognition in Duo's eyes.

"Are you okay?" Wufei asked. Duo blinked a few times.

"Yeah. Yeah, I'm fine. Just reminded me of Kat, is all."

Quatre slipped out of the backroom after that, just to be safe.

_How did I survive being undercover at Preventers when I've nearly blown my disguise already?_


	3. September 23, AC 205 - Part 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You're afraid of this leading us back to where we were, aren't you, Heero?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> When Heero wants to fuck with people, he speaks in a language only people from the L1 Colony Cluster understand. It's like some kind of test.

_23 September, AC 205_  
2:10am  
  
Four more hours. 

Heero's fingers gripped the cool neck of a bottle, a bottle of what he didn't know, didn't care so long as it kept the nightmares at bay for just a few more hours. He turned over, snuck a few gulps from it before turning onto his back again. He wanted to sleep for more than a couple of hours tonight.

* * *

_4:25am  
Two more hours. _

The bottle had slipped from his hand but he didn't care, couldn't be bothered to reach for another hidden under his bed. The demons who chased him nightly were too persistent to be drowned out by sweet alcohol tonight. He tried to sleep on his stomach but that didn't work. Half drunk and half asleep he murmured a name, the name of someone who hadn't slept in his bed for at least a year now. There was no one who could lull him to sleep now.

He woke up and grabbed the pack of cigarettes from the night stand. Swung his legs over the edge of the bed, rested his elbows on his knees as he lit a cigarette and watched the smoke curl in the light that filtered in through the blinds. Colonies were a lot darker at night than regular towns on Earth, but he was lucky to have an apartment with the brightest halogen street light in all of L1-NJ862973 right outside his window.

_Why do I have to think about you tonight?_ He took a long drag, let the smoke settle in his lungs before slowly exhaling it all out, imagining that he was breathing out all of the demons hidden deep inside; he knew he couldn't reach that deep inside of him, nothing could. Drinking himself into a stupour only made things better temporarily, pressed a mute button on the darkest parts of him. Things were better because he could forget.

He closed his eyes after leaving the cigarette to smolder in a makeshift ashtray, head resting against the wall where there used to be a headboard.

* * *

_5:59am_

_"Our weapon has no need for human emotions like 'kindness'."_

_Internally he flinched; he tried his best to ensure Dekim couldn't see anything but a stoic expression on his face. Dr J said nothing, he had tried and Dekim didn't want to listen._

_"Retrain him at once. I have no need for a flawed soldier."_

_6:00am_

The screen of a smartphone lit up briefly before sounding off an alarm similar to a Gundam's self-detonation sequence. Heero jolted awake, hands clutching the sheet covering the lower half of his body, his neck aching from falling asleep sitting up against the wall of his bedroom. He stared at his phone for a moment or two before reaching for it. He thumbed in his pass code to check his texts. There were a few from Trowa, two from unknown numbers who wanted to hook up again--Heero deleted those without really reading them--and one from Quatre.

_I'll be in the area for the next couple of weeks on business. I'll explain more when I see you._

Heero scoffed as he reached under the bed, his mouth dry as he pulled out an almost empty bottle of vodka, his 'love' for the past few nights. He unscrewed the cap and drank it straight from the bottle, upending the entire contents into his mouth and let it burn the insides of his cheeks and felt it sear down his throat.

_Sure,_ Heero typed. _I'll see you later. You know where to find me._

Heero had just gotten a new job, a new place of residence, a new lease on life, or at least that was what he had told Trowa two weeks ago when he had moved out of the place they shared. Well, it wasn't exactly Heero's choice--Trowa was tired of housing a drunk, was tired of finding him passed out on the floor, of hearing him talk again and again about how he shouldn't have left--

Heero bolted from his bed. No. He couldn't think about _him_ again, he had a strict limit of 'once a night' if he even let himself dwell on his ex at all. The ex-boyfriend he'd left and had every intention of going back to after he had his shit straightened out, but who wasn't waiting for him when he went back. He ran a hand through his hair as he went to the bathroom to brush his teeth and look somewhat presentable--there wasn't any time for a shower today. He looked at himself in the mirror as he brushed his teeth. At 25 he both looked his age and didn't look his age--his eyes made him look so much older, maybe in his thirties, but everything else made him look early to mid-twenties. He spat the toothpaste out into the sink and wiped his mouth clean before heading back to his bedroom. He had only just turned 25, didn't really feel 25.

He slipped into a pair of black denim work pants, pocketing his phone and wallet after doing up his belt. An undershirt followed by a navy blue t-shirt and matching work jacket completed his work uniform. He found a pair of socks that sort of matched-- _Where the hell do my socks disappear to?_ \--and pulled those on before heading out to the living room to find his work boots. Heero never was and never would be a sneakers person, preferring boots or regular shoes to any kind of athletic wear, and he always felt more secure with steel toed footwear anyway. Heading back to his room, he picked up his watch and plain silver ring--both meant for someone other than him, but that person was gone now, gone from his life--and placed them on their respective body parts.

_What else do I need..._ He patted down his pockets as he headed back to the living room. _Just my keys and jacket._ His keys were on the small table by the door and his jacket was on the arm of the couch, one of the few items of furniture he had in his small apartment meant for no more than two occupants. It suited Heero just fine since it was always him and never someone else who ended up back here anyway. Trowa and Relena both had tried to get him to date after his last relationship, and while Heero had had many...'encounters', he just couldn't keep himself from comparing each of them to his last real relationship.

He'd be lying if he said he wasn't still hurt. It would hurt less if he didn't have reminders, but Heero couldn't seem to part with them.

He exhaled loudly and spritzed on the first bottle of cologne he could reach from the doorway of his bedroom before grabbing his jacket and keys and heading out for the day, making sure the door was locked. He dropped his jacket in the barely large enough storage space on his motorbike before hopping on. He let the engine idle for a bit as he put on his helmet and took one last chance to make sure he had what he needed on him. Once he was certain he could go, he pushed out of the space he paid an extra twenty-five credits a month for in rent to reserve before heading off to his place of employment: Winnermart. It certainly wasn't ideal, but it paid the rent and put food on the table...and though Heero wasn't proud of it and wouldn't dare to admit it to anyone, it also helped pay for Lady Grey Goose to keep him company night after night.

Lately she'd been a pretty shitty guest who brought up bad memories instead of making him forget.

_Maybe I'm becoming immune_.

When Heero arrived at work, there were only a few other cars parked. There wasn't much of a night crew just yet, and many of the day shift probably weren't showing up for another half hour at least. It was only ten after six in the morning after all. Heero came early in the hopes there would be coffee, as was usually the case. Sometimes, someone was nice and brought doughnuts or bagels or something. Upon getting to the break room, Heero discovered that no one brought in any kind of breakfast, nor was there any coffee.

_Guess I'll have to be the one to make it then_.

He went about making the coffee, looking for cups as it percolated and dripped liquid ambrosia into the carafe. There were some cheap styrofoam ones in a supplies box under the sink, and Heero guessed that they would have to do, though he preferred the usual paper cups they must've run out of. He moved the carafe and quickly put his cup in its place, since Heero was too tired from the nightmares and slightly hungover from the night before, and once that was full he switched out his cup for the carafe again.

"Morning," said Kate, as she walked into the break room. Heero nodded in response before taking a sip of piping hot coffee. He normally didn't take it black, but he needed something strong. Kate apparently also took hers black, or maybe she needed a similar pick-me-up, because Heero noticed she didn't put anything at all in her cup prior to filling it. All he really knew about Kate was that she was his newly appointed front end ZS and she wasn't all that thrilled with their current store manager, Albert Daniels, though really no one was. His blatant favouritism when it came to the ZMS for Receiving was a common complaint upper management did nothing about.

"Wait..." Kate slid into one of the plastic grey chairs placed around a cheap tablecloth covered table. "Didn't you close service desk last night?"

Heero nodded as he leaned against the sink.

"Shit, I'm sorry." She grinned sheepishly. "I meant to change that before I clocked out for the day..."

Heero shrugged. "I don't think there's many people to schedule for coverage. I'm up at this hour anyway."

_Up because I can't shake off these nightmares._

"Still. You're supposed to have eight hours between each shift and you were scheduled until 12:30." She drummed her fingers against the cup. Heero watched her while he drained half of his cup, not caring that the coffee was still way too hot. It burned his throat and made his eyes water, but it worked to wake him up more.

"Do you work tomorrow?" Kate asked. "I can always take you off the schedule to make up for it..."

"Who will open then?"

Kate sighed, running a hand through her hair. "That's the problem. You're my only reliable service desk person. But I could always schedule myself over there until your 8:30 comes in... Or I could shove a CSM over there. Someone else comes in at 10:30, so it would be okay."

As Kate tried to mentally rearrange tomorrow's service desk TMAT, Heero checked the wall clock and saw it was 6:25. Close enough--he could clock in five minutes early, and maybe leave five minutes early if he was lucky, providing his 2:30 showed up today. Heero drained the rest of his coffee and threw the cup away before heading over to the time clock just outside of the break room door and swiped his name badge. It beeped once.

_Do I really want to clock in?_ Heero pressed the _clock in_ button anyway.

"I'll see you up front," Heero said to Kate, before he headed up to the front. He knew he didn't have much to worry about since he was the one who had closed last night. The place would hopefully be spotless and the store wasn't usually that busy around this time of year--the kids were back to school, the adults back to work, and it was no longer summer, although the colonies didn't really have 'seasons', it was just hotter than it was any other time of the year in an attempt to create a summer. Some colonies were better at creating seasons than others.

_Humanity can't shake itself from the clutches of Earth._

One of the opening cashiers was wandering around the front end with a box of bags, her long, light brown hair pulled back into a long braid and Heero frowned as he made his way towards the service desk counter. Cheyenne was really nice, and she had been trying (and failing miserably) to flirt with him and even once indirectly asked him out, but Heero didn't have the heart to commit. Her bubbly demeanor and smile, plus the fact that she always had a braid, made Heero's heart hurt. That wasn't Cheyenne's fault, of course, but Heero didn't have the heart to date someone just because they reminded him of his ex. That wouldn't be fair to either of them.

"Morning, Heero," she said, a huge smile on her face, as she unloaded a box of bags onto the bagging carousel for register 13.

"Morning." He continued towards service desk, where there were fifteen carts filled with all sorts of merchandise lined up in front of the counter. Many of them could have easily been condensed, but the overnight crew wasn't known for their smarts.

Heero sighed.

_What a wonderful way to start today._

* * *

_8:25am_

Heero wasn't half bad at this service desk thing. He hadn't managed to fuck up too badly, only needing a couple of CSM overrides to fix up some fuck ups, but that was mostly because some customers assumed he could read minds and while Heero believed in extrasensory capabilities, he didn't possess any, or at least that particular one. Kate kept coming over and checking in on him, asking if he was okay, if he needed anything, etc., but Heero thus far was okay. The register training he received for a week and a half helped him a little bit, and the touch screen interface was almost completely idiot proof--a return with a receipt meant you pressed the 'RETURN -- RECEIPT' button, and a return without a receipt (or with an e-receipt) meant you pressed the 'RETURN -- NO RECEIPT' button, which led to it asking if it was an e-receipt.

Hell, there was a tab that had a directory of every SOP needed for everything up at service desk in case he needed to look up how to do something that wasn't automatically intuitive. It also helped that Heero wasn't alone at service--he had a young man named Ray there right as the clock turned 8:30. Ray was a little shorter than Heero, with medium length hair that was a little lighter than his.

"So you're our new service desk associate," Ray said with a grin. "I'm Ray. Used to be a CSM at another store, but I transferred here shortly before the grand opening since it's closer to where I live."

"So then you know what you're doing, I hope."

"Most days!" Ray laughed as he signed into his register. "Hey... Don't take this the wrong way, but..." He leaned against the back counter.

"What were you during the war?"

Heero stopped halfway to the reshop bins, his arms full of various apparel items.

"How did you know I was in the war?"

Ray pointed at his name badge pinned to the company issued jacket.

"Green badge means you're a vet," Ray answered. "Winnermart is a huge supporter of war veterans, no matter what side they come from. Couple years back they made this huge deal about hiring more and so to gain more visibility for them, they made it so they all had certain coloured badges."

"I see." Heero dumped the various shirts and pants into the apparel bin, which was near overflowing. Fitting room usually never let it get this bad.

"It's okay if you don't wanna tell me," Ray said. "I fought for OZ... Glad I got out of there, shit wasn't good towards the end. Whatever side you're from, it doesn't matter anyway. Just curiousity, is all." He sighed.

"It's nice knowing that I'm not the only one here who's ex-military, you know? Makes me less lonely."

"I fought for the colonies," was all Heero said, as he cleared the back counter of the rest of the returns.

"White Fang?"

"No. Colony Liberation Organisation."

"So how are we doing?" Kate asked for the fifth time that morning, interrupting a conversation Heero had no idea how to get out of.

"Fine," Heero said, as he grabbed the last of the merchandise from the back counter.

Ray laughed. "Kate, I'm sure he's been doing great all morning. Lay off him a little, will you?"

"I just want to make sure..."

The words had no sooner left her mouth when a young woman dressed in a bright pink shirt and what appeared to be doll-like makeup stormed through the sliding doors and over to Heero's register, not even waiting for him to ask if she needed help. She threw the plastic Winnermart bag onto the counter and crossed her arms.

"Hoo boy," Kate said, as she moved closer to Heero and Ray, her voice dropping. "You know, we have those 'please queue here' and 'please wait until you are called' signs for a reason..."

"You're assuming someone's gonna read the damn things," Ray muttered.

"Well? Are you gonna just stand there or are you gonna do something and help me?!"

Heero and Ray looked at each other.

"Lemme see how you handle a 'difficult' customer, Heero."

Heero took his place behind the register and retrieved her receipt from the bag.

"Is there anything wro--"

"I'll tell you what's wrong!" She ripped the shirt from the bag with such force a giant hole was now where the bag handle once was. "This shirt, this fucking shirt, doesn't fit at all! It says it's a medium, which is what I usually am, but it barely fucking fit over my head!" She drummed her fingers on the counter.

"I'm sorry," Heero said, his voice and sympathy entirely Customer Service. "Would you like to exchange this?"

"No! No I would _not_ like to exchange it! I'll tell you why."

"I'll go get us some coffee from the Rubi machine out in the vestibule," Kate said, as Heero scanned in the customer's receipt and then scanned the tag on the shirt. He didn't really give a shit what her reason was, but he listened since he had to select a reason from a drop down menu, even though that only determined if a claims slip printed out or not.

"I can never find anything in my size that fits! Never! You never have what I want, half the time you have what I need, and when I do find something cute or something I need, it's never in the right size!"

She noisily chewed her gum and glared daggers at Ray for no reason. From this angle, Heero couldn't help but notice that she resembled a camel. An angry, very pissed off camel, but a camel nonetheless. Ray must have noticed as well, because he avoided looking at her, and when he did, he started giggling. Kate returned with three small sized to-go coffees. He could practically taste the peppermint Kate had put in hers.

"I'm sorry to hear that," Heero answered, selecting _Changed Mind_ and then hitting 'yes' when it asked if the item could be resold. He chucked it onto the back counter.

"No you're not," she retorted. "Don't give me that shit."

Heero gave her a look. "Is that all, ma'am?"

She uncrossed her arms slightly. "Yes. Yes, that is all, _sir_." She narrowed her eyes at him. "Shouldn't you be in high school or something? Or are you one of those drop outs?"

Kate cleared her throat. "Excuse me, miss, but if you continue to treat my associate as you're currently doing, I will have to ask you to find another store to shop at."

The customer rolled her eyes. "You can't stop me from coming in here. Besides, the customer is always right."

_Except when they're terribly wrong_ , Heero thought. "I was in high school ten years ago." He hit more buttons to finish the transaction, stopping at the payment portion.

"Would you like this back on your debit card, or would you prefer cash back or store credit?"

"I'm not waiting three fucking days for my bank to give me back my money for some stupid shirt! Who the hell wants a store credit? Why are you wasting my time?! Just give me my fucking money back!"

"If it's put through as a debit it's back on your card immediate--"

"Don't." Heero hit cash before he gestured to the pin pad. "It's not worth it."

Ray sighed.

"Please sign the pin pad when prompted."

The woman groaned and rolled her eyes before taking the stylus attached to the pin pad and scribbling on the screen before tapping, a lot harder than necessary, 'ACCEPT'. A receipt showing her signature printed out and the cash drawer popped open, hitting Heero right on the hip.

"Can I have my fucking money?!"

Just to make her wait even longer, Heero took out each bill one by one to make up her twenty credit cash refund--and gave it to her in all singles and fives.

"Sorry," Heero said, as he handed her the wad of bills. "That's all I have in my drawer."

Camel Lady sighed. "Sure. Whatever. If it'll get me out of this hellhole--WHERE IS MY RECEIPT?!"

Heero handed it back to her after he crossed her shirt off, and she snatched it from him, tearing the bottom part.

"I am never coming here again. This is the worst experience ever. Fucking faggots. This is why OZ should've won!"

Before anyone could say a word, she stomped out of the store.

Kate was the first to speak. "What the hell just happened?"

Ray shrugged. "I'm not entirely sure, but when I figure that out I'll let you know."

Heero shoved the signature slip into the RECEIPTS part of the blue folder.

"I need a drink," was all he said. Ray handed him one of the cups of coffee.

"Here ya go."

"Oh! That reminds me..." Kate snuck a look at the TMAT in her hands. "I came over here for a reason, not just to see how you were. I wanted to tell you that you're due for your break."

Heero locked his register. "Who's relieving me for fifteen minutes?"

"I'm here," Ray said. "And it's not so busy, I think I can handle the ship--"

"You know that Store Manager Al would yell and scream if he saw only one person standing here at service," Kate reminded him.

Ray rolled his eyes. "So instead of just one guy standing here doing nothing and getting paid, he wants two."

Kate grinned. "Yeah. But anyway, I have this new guy, his name is Quattro."

As if summoned, a young man with light blond hair, oversized glasses, a seemingly painted on mustache, and carefully tailored work clothing walked over to Kate, a huge grin on his face.

"Hello!"

Ray cocked an eyebrow. "Your name is Quattro...like the razor?"

"Look, I didn't name him, okay? I've heard stranger names in my life. Anyway, Heero, go on your fifteen, I'll have Quattro here cover. Ray can teach him some things since that's why he's been sent to us. Good?"

Heero shrugged. "Whatever. I'll see you in fifteen."

"There's...not really much to teach..." Ray tapped the touch screen. "It's all pretty self explanatory..."

"Try not to break anything while I'm gone," Heero said, leaving his work jacket on the counter before heading outside.

Heero went out to his motorbike, where he kept a water bottle filled with vodka hidden under his jacket in the storage area tucked under the second seat. He lit a cigarette before uncapping the bottle of booze. He knew he shouldn't...but he needed something to take the edge off. Just a little. He stared at the bottle for a bit.

_I shouldn't. What if they smell it? You'll fuck up everything. Have some self control._

He held the bottle in his hand for a minute or two as he stared at it.

_No one would know what was in it. It's clear, like water._

Heero took a long drag from his cigarette and, mind finally made up, took an equally long pull from the bottle.

_Do not drink more than that the rest of your shift_.

Heero replaced the bottle in its hiding spot and walked over to the smoker's area about fifty feet away from the door, the absolute minimum it had to be away from any and all entrances according to policy, though in bad weather most lit up ten feet away so they were covered by the awning of the building.

He took a seat on one of the metal benches not already occupied. There were already three people out here on some kind of break, all talking about customers or their work hours or after work plans. Heero only half paid attention until one of the cashiers let out something interesting.

"So I heard that the Winnermart CEO sent someone from Corporate down to pose as an hourly," she said, as she lit up another cigarette.

"Why's that?" Cheyenne asked. "The place just opened not that long ago, didn't it?"

"Yeah, but we've already had two store managers, no one knows who the assistant manager is for anything, and we barely have enough CSMs and cashiers because turnover is so high. They wanna see why."

Cheyenne laughed. "Obviously it has to do with management being piss poor."

Mark, the opening CSM, rolled his eyes. "Yeah, like they're gonna do anything. The CEO doesn't give a shit, he's too busy making all that money."

The cashier who was on her third cigarette laughed. "Who even knows who the CEO is? It's not that one guy anymore, is it?"

"Doug McDougal?"

"Yeah."

"He hasn't been CEO since WEI took over."

Cheyenne pulled out her phone. "Hold on, let me google this."

"The CEO is Quatre Winner," Heero said, lighting his second cigarette from what was left of his first one.

Mark made a face. "Isn't he young for a CEO? He's like Chey's age."

"I'm eighteen," Cheyenne said. "Wikipedia says that he's born in AC 180, so he's 25."

"Still young to be a CEO. Where the hell did I go wrong in my life?!" Mark asked, throwing his cigarette to the ground. "Working at Winnermart as a customer service manager, that's what." He looked at his phone.

"I gotta get back. I gotta get this one new hire on register training but I ain't got no cashiers."

Cheyenne sighed when Mark left. "I guess I have to go back too." She got up from the bench.

"Maybe Mark'll have me train this new hire. I hear he's cute--too bad HBA got him."

"Kate can always steal him," said the other cashier. Heero realised he never learned her name, and she never wore a name badge, and of course he couldn't _ask_ her what her name was when he'd worked with her for over a month now.

"Yeah, if he's any good." Heero finished his cigarette and flicked it into the designated disposal container before heading back inside.

* * *

_10am_

"Is it normally this busy?" Quattro asked, as he stared at the line that spanned across the front area of the store, past the cart rail and nearly at the self checkout attendant station.

"No," Ray said, finishing up a return. "Here you go ma'am, have a nice day!"

"Do we have a mid?" Heero asked.

"Dunno, check the TMAT," Ray asked, motioning for another customer to come forward.

"Hey, Kate?" It was the store manager asking for Kate over the walkie for the third time in about as many minutes.

"Yes, Al?"

"Customer service needs some help, we've got a line out to the self checks. Can we open up some additional registers or something?"

Heero stared at the date printed at the bottom of the rather crumpled receipt a customer had just given him.

"Sir, you do realise that this receipt is from AC 195, right?"

The customer feigned shock. "It is? But how is that possible?"

Heero stared at them briefly.

"It says the name of the store before Winner Enterprises took over at the top."

The customer looked at him with fear and uncertainty in his eyes. Heero didn't understand why.

"Does...does this mean I can't return anything?"

Heero crumpled up the receipt and threw it in the trash bin under the counter.

"You can still return these items--"

"Oh thank god!"

"--but you'll only get store credit."

Again, the customer gave him a look of fear and uncertainty.

"What is a store credit? Can I... Can I use--what is that?"

Heero held up a gift card. "This."

"Oh! Oh okay it's a gift card. Yes, I'd like one of those, please."

"My granddaughter is around your age, I'd reckon," said a little old lady Quattro was helping. Or at least he was trying to help. She had yet to relinquish any of the items she wanted to return in favour of playing matchmaker.

"Ma'am," he said. "I'm not looking to date anyone right now... You are holding up my line, can you please..."

"Not until you agree to at least meet my granddaughter!"

"Ma'am, please--"

Heero could tell Quattro was not comfortable in the least and offered him an out.

"Ma'am?"

She looked his way.

"Can you please stop trying to force your granddaughter on my boyfriend?"

She looked from him to Quattro and back again, studying him closely before plopping her bag on the counter.

"I'd like to return..."

Once the line was finally down without any intervention from Kate, Quattro sighed.

"Thank you."

Heero shrugged. "Just helping you out. I've had guys do that for me at bars. Just paying it forward."

Ray dumped a whole bunch of food items into the bin for claims before exclaiming loudly, "I'm goin' on break before your mid gets here." He practically tore off his uniform jacket and threw it under the counter before he made a beeline for the door.

"Can I tell you something?" Quattro asked once Ray was certainly out of earshot.

"That mustache isn't real."

Quattro smiled a little. "No. No, it's not."

"You could've tried a little harder, you know." Heero leaned back against the edge of the counter, arms folded over his chest as he watched customers come and go through the front sliding doors.

"The good thing is most people don't know what I actually look like. I've fooled everyone but you."

"They're the ones you want to fool...right?"

He grinned now.

"If I managed to fool you, I would've been very impressed with myself."

"If you want to try again in the future, pick something that doesn't sound similar to your actual name." He looked closer at Quatre's face. "And grow some actual facial hair."

"Perhaps Gillette would have been a much better alias... As for the facial hair, I would likely have to glue some onto my face at this rate..."

"I won't blow your cover, but I would like an explanation later."

Quatre nodded. "I'll explain things once we're on lunch. There's...also someone I think you should meet."

Heero sighed, gave Quatre a look that said _no_.

"You don't even know who it is."

"If this was some elaborate scheme to have me meet someone I could 'maybe date'--"

"No! No, of course not--Heero, what kind of person do you take me for? Although..."

Quatre hung his head.

"I did partly come out here to see you--but not in the way that you think! Or, at least, I don't think it's in the way that you think."

Heero had never seen Quatre this flustered before.

* * *

 

Duo had just clocked out for lunch when his phone started buzzing in his back pocket. He pulled it out and saw the notification about an unread text message.

_I need to see you. Meet me at the McDonalds._

Duo shrugged and texted that he was on his way before placing his phone back in his pocket.

_That's weird. What the hell is Kat doin' here?_ He grinned on his way to the front of the building where a McDonalds rented out space and Winnermart employees got a discount, probably because they felt sorry for them.

He hadn't seen Kat in about four months and things got real awkward towards the end. Quatre had admitted he was in love with him and Duo, being unable to really lie, confessed he felt something for Quatre in return, but that it wouldn't work out.

_"Not when I'm still in love with someone else."_

But they had ended up in bed together anyway.

That was an hour before he had left Quatre's employment and struck out on his own. When he found the one he was still hung up on getting shitfaced in a bar on L1 a few days later, it eventually led to a complicated "casual" relationship that led to even more heartbreak when Duo realised that he _still loved Heero_.

Duo being in love with someone made him dangerous.

He walked into the Golden Arches, expecting to just see Quatre there waiting for him. There was someone sat next to him in the booth, and Duo could tell who it was despite only seeing the back of their head.

_How could you forget that Kat and Heero were best buds too?_ Duo took a deep breath and tried to look confident. _That's totally allowed, y'know. Just be cool. It don't matter. He's your ex._

Duo approached, a smile on his face, hands in his pockets.

"Yo. Long time no see."

Quatre smiled. "I hope you don't mind our guest; Heero told me it's been awhile since he saw you last... I saw this as a great opportunity to see the both of you."

"That so?"

Heero had his arms folded on the table in front of him, eyes staring at the menu. Quatre had all sorts of reports strewn across his side of the booth and his half of the table.

"Have a seat," Quatre said, gesturing to the empty space across from him and next to Heero. "I'm here mostly for business and I'd like to talk to you and Heero both about Winnermart."

Duo looked at the empty spot before carefully sliding into the booth.

"What's up?"

"Quatre was showing me some of the reports he's gotten about this store," Heero said. "To sum it all up: The store is losing money out the jugular, and no one knows why that is from the top of the tower."

Duo leaned back in his seat, arms resting behind his head.

"Ain't surprised they don't got a clue. Most of those assholes probably never worked out on the salesfloor their entire lives, so they don't get to deal with the customers and the shite managers."

Quatre clasped his hands on top of a stack of papers.

"Things don't look good here from what I've seen so far. You have missing CSMs who leave the work to their superior... Department managers who expect their associates to carry all of the weight while they take all of the credit and blame their subordinates when things go wrong... And you have store management who barks orders and ends up being rather abusive."

Heero sipped at his coffee. "We don't have many assistant managers either and the ones we do have rarely show up or they're terribly incompetent."

"So what're you plannin' on doin' to fix this?"

Quatre fingered through the reports. "I pulled the store manager's file. This is his fifth store just in this cluster, not to mention he's been in charge of stores all over L3 and L4. They all ended up either being barely salvageable or they've closed entirely."

"So clearly something's up with our Fearless Leader then."

"I believe that things can be fixed here," Quatre said. "The store has been open for almost a month and yet I feel that cleaning house might be the only option at this point. It will need to be done in stages and the replacements already 'in place' before I wipe out all of the salaried management."

Duo shifted in his seat. "So when's this happenin'?"

Quatre was already in his phone's calendar app. "I'm here for the next few weeks, so I would hope within that time frame I will have everything set up; realistically speaking, things won't be fully set up for months, and even longer still to see what kind of effect that has. For now, I want to observe more, and I plan on meeting with some of your managers one on one to see what their input is about different things."

"You want us to be your eyes and ears," Heero surmised.

"I can't be everywhere at once, unfortunately," Quatre said, his head bowed slightly. "And you and Duo are the only ones I know at this location who really _deal_ with these things. I just need your honesty as Winnermart associates. Rest assured, I will be out there with you, going to different areas to see how they're run."

"And how d'you know they're not gonna just make shit look like it's running smoothly like they do for Market?"

Quatre smiled. "Because they don't know that it's me. I've been working incognito."

Duo blinked. "Huh?"

"You know how there's this new associate named Quattro?" Heero asked. "Or maybe you haven't met him yet."

Duo looked from Heero to Quatre and back again.

"...Wait. So that kid I was workin' with this mornin'..."

Quatre nodded.

"You mean you didn't know it was Quatre?"

"Well I was kinda busy tryin' to clean up a whole mess in HBA so no, I wasn't really payin' much attention to his face. But...now that you mention it... He did sound like Kat."

Quatre looked from Heero to Duo.

"So you'll help me?"

Heero nodded. Duo shrugged.

"Why not, right? If we do good, it means we get to keep our jobs."

Quatre smiled. "Thank you both. This means a lot to me, more than you know." He stood then.

"Where are you goin'?"

"I'm going to make a phone call and let the Board know what the plan is. I'll be back in a few minutes."

_So you're gonna leave me with Heero? Thanks, Kat._

"So..."

"We don't have to talk if you don't want to," Heero said.

"Hey now. I really don't want this to be any _more_ awkward than it already is." Duo's expression softened. "I haven't seen or heard from you in like six months--"

"Four," Heero corrected. "Four and three-quarters if you really want to be technical."

"Well that's more like five months but okay, 'Ro, have it your way, we're at McDonalds after all."

Heero's eyes narrowed, though Duo could tell he was trying to not give the small hint of a smile.

"I fucked up, okay? I fully admit that I fucked up--"

"Could've saved us a lot of trouble if you'd admitted it back then."

_This is not where I wanted the conversation to go, dammit._

"How've you been? I'm bein' sincere."

Heero took a deep breath, stared at his now lukewarm coffee cup.

"Great," Heero said. "Absolutely _fantastic_."

"'Cause you're with me, huh?" He stared at the place where Quatre had been sitting. "I'd be really fuckin' sarcastic if I were with me too, and I know this is kinda late and it's really awkward since we're at McDonalds, but... I'm sorry."

Heero said nothing for a bit. Duo could tell he was trying to process it.

"It wasn't as awkward as that one date we went on."

"Which?" Duo had been part of a _lot_ of awkward dates.

Heero drew shapes with his plastic stirrer in his coffee. "That double date we had with Trowa and Wufei--are they even still together?"

Duo chuckled. "Yeah. Yeah, they still are, though I think they broke up like twelve times since then."

"I think the last time I talked to Trowa he didn't mention Wufei to me at all," Heero said. "That's why I was asking."

Duo shrugged. "Could be on some kind of break again for all I know--Tro don't talk to me much these days 'cause it's circus season, and I enjoy pissing Wufei off too much for him to confide much in me."

They sat in silence for a while, during which Quatre came back.

"Sorry about that, Jeff didn't want to say goodbye."

Heero cocked an eyebrow. "Who's Jeff?"

"His fuckin' _pain in the ass_ personal assistant," Duo answered.

"While I wouldn't go that far, I can't say he's wrong," Quatre admitted. "But yes, Jeff is my personal assistant and somewhat...too immersed in his role."

"Just admit it, he's your babysitter." He leaned in close to Heero. "He nearly had a goddamn stroke when Kat and I were makin' out once."

Quatre flushed scarlet as Heero stared at the two of them.

"Like Kat's some fifteen year old kid or some shit."

Quatre cleared his throat. "I...hadn't told Heero about you and I..."

Duo leaned back. "Oh! Well by the way, Kat and I dated." He puffed out his chest in mock pride.

"Is that supposed to bother me?"

Duo rested his elbows on the table, his head in his hands. "You could at least pretend."

Quatre laughed a little. "I think we have a lot to catch up on."

"Looks like it. Maybe when this is all said and done, we can, uh, have an actual get together." Duo looked at Heero.

"I wouldn't mind," Quatre said.

Heero just shrugged.

_You're afraid of this leading us back to where we were, aren't you, Heero?_

* * *

 

The lunch rush as Kate had called it, which was the period from 11am until 1pm, wasn't actually that much of a rush. In Heero's opinion, it was more of a faucet trickle. Rochelle was so bored she was finishing up her CBLs on the computer behind the service desk counter, a box of old SodaStream CO2 canisters her makeshift seat. Ray was cleaning the glass sliding doors, removing all of the fingerprints people left on the ones that didn't automatically open.

"Well this is a 'rush'," Duo said, as he filled out the different on screen fields with the worst touchscreen keyboard he had ever used in his life for a customer wiring money all the way to Earth.

"Don't get too used to it," Heero answered. "It's not always this quiet."

The phone rang, causing everyone to jump in surprise. Even the store was unusually quiet for this time of day, and on a Friday no less, when many people got out of work early so they could get a head start on the weekend. Especially during the summer.

"Customer service, how can I help you?" Heero asked.

"Hi, my name is Roland Grommensleifer, calling from Home Office," the caller said. "My badge number is 894370 for your reference. Now, I'm calling to check up on your register to see if the update went into effect regarding the Bill Pay options."

Heero signed onto his register and hit the Financial Services tab.

"What kind of update?"

Ray immediately looked over once he heard that.

"Oh, I see it hasn't gone through yet. Let me just pull up your register credentials..." Heero could hear typing in the background. He glanced at the phone console to see how much time had been wasted when he saw that the number on the line was a local number. He muted the call while his 'credentials' were pulled up.

"Hey, Ray?"

"Yeah?"

"What's the number for Home Office?"

Ray came around the counter and pulled out a behemoth of a binder with all of the important numbers in it as well as market information, what stores were in the market along with their phone numbers and addresses, as well as other important things someone up at customer service might need in order to help a customer.

"+1-447 is the country and area code," Ray said. "Why?"

Heero gestured to the console. "I have someone claiming to be from 'Home Office' saying something about register updates. It's a local number calling. Somehow I doubt they're real."

"Sir, are you still on the line?"

Heero unmuted it. "Yeah."

"Okay, so what register are you on? Are you on 91, 92, or 93?"

Heero said nothing for a moment. _How the hell does this guy know what registers we have at customer service? Unless each store has the same layout, but I've seen ones that have five registers..._

"Sir?"

"Sorry, I had to check. I'm on register 91."

"Okay then." More typing. "And your name is?"

_You can pull up the register credentials and yet you don't know what register I'm on or who's signed in? I don't think so._ In that moment, because it was slow and Heero was bored, he decided to have some fun with this 'Home Office' worker.

"Aiden Clark," Heero said.

"Jaden?"

" _Aiden_ ," Heero said. "A-I-D-E-N." Heero figured the name of someone who had been dead for years and years would be a good name to give out.

"Hey, uh, you want this to go to where?" Duo asked.

"To Canada," the customer said. "My son has been kidnapped and I need to pay his ransom."

Duo stared at the customer. "Have you called your son? Like, his actual number?"

The man stared back, silent for a moment. "Well... No... But they said he was hurt real bad, I...I could only talk to him for just a few seconds--"

"Call your son. Just to be sure. I won't process this in the meantime, but I'll leave it on the screen just in case."

"O-Okay."

Heero drummed his fingers on the counter as the man on the phone directed him through the Bill Pay screens.

"Soshite... anou... You have my computer, are you sure you want to type, sir?"

"What?"

"Gomen na, ogyaku-sama... Ore no eigo wa jozu ja nai yo..." For once Heero was putting his being bilingual to use. With so many people who knew Japanese, Heero wanted to see just _how_ local this operation was, so he switched tactics. Each colony cluster was a rather large melting pot, some more so than others depending on how close to Earth they were. L1, being the closest, had the largest melting pot community, and over time, the different languages ended up mixing and blending together into what many touted as the lovechild of a drunken one night stand between Japanese, English, and German.

It was, aptly enough, just called "L1 Japanese", or just "L1" by those who lived on the colony. Incomprehensible to anyone who wasn't from the L1 Colony Cluster. Knowing the individual languages probably didn't help anyone, but Heero knew all three fluently so he didn't know.

There was silence on the other end.

"Nan no input does das computer gewanten?" Heero figured he would start out easy, something that was close to what he would've said in English: _What do you want me to put in the computer?_

"For the company name, put in Emerald Valley Trade Bank."

"Gomen na. Can you spell that in der Briefe, bitte onegai?"

Ray and Rochelle exchanged looks. Clearly they knew Heero was just trying to waste time by having the guy on the other end spell everything out.

The man on the phone sighed. "Emerald. E-M-E-R-A-L-D. Valley. V-A-L-L-E-Y. Trade. T-R-A-D-E. Bank. B-A-N-K."

Heero typed in a bunch of gibberish. "Danke arigatou gozaimaschön, sir, for giving der Briefe zu mich."

"Is that associate drunk?" the customer doing the suspicious Moneygram asked.

"Nah," Duo said. "L1 has a very...interesting mixed language, is all."

"Cancel the transaction," the customer said. "My son isn't in Canada at all."

Duo smiled. "I'm glad to hear that, man. Where's he? Hopefully home."

"He's on L5 for business."

Duo exited out of the Moneygram Send screen.

"That ain't nowhere near Canada."

"I know, right? Ah well. Thanks."

"Just wait till Christmas time," Ray said. "You'll see _all_ the scamming scumbags out in full force."

Heero tapped a few other things on his screen.

"You have it on Same Day payment?"

"Does it really matter if it's just a 'test transaction'?"

"If you want this to advance correctly for the update, then yes."

"Chotto matte bitte onegai... I don't have that option. Let me try again." Heero tapped his finger on the screen a few more times. "Ah. There we go. Owari yo."

"Now for the testing amount we're going to use my agent number, which is 894370. So you should come out with $8943.70 as the amount."

Duo leaned against the back counter. "So how long until the guy realises that Heero's just been fuckin' with him the past ten minutes?"

"Dunno," Ray answered. "I'm just surprised the guy knows what the hell he's even saying."

"Maybe he's just good at guessing."

Heero tapped the screen a few more times in random places. "Okay. There is a reference number here... Do you need that?"

"Yes!" The man sounded so excited. "Once I type in that reference number, your register will be completely updated and you'll be able to sign out, okay?"

"It's kind of a long one, I hope you have paper to write it down on..."

"I can just input it directly into my computer."

"Okay... 8867530999."

Heero heard typing. He smirked.

"Okay, your update is at 100 percent. You can sign out and then sign back in and your Bill Pay will be updated." The line disconnected.

"I don't know how anyone could fall for that, but can you please tell Fitting Room that if someone calls claiming they're from Home Office, it's a scam, and to hang up instead of transferring the damn things? Imagine if we were busy over here, and someone did this while focused on a customer here?"

"That's _probably_ what they're hopin' for, that you'll do it without thinkin'. Imagine ya did it? Would've walked away with fuckin' nine grand."

"Too bad he didn't realise I'd given his phone number as his reference number."


	4. Blackout I

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Murphy's Law: Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong. In Winnermart's case, if anything can go wrong, it will, and it will end up escalating.

_September 24, AC 205_  
_10:30am_

Heero, Ray, and Mark were up at service desk; Ray had, in fact just clocked in and placed his jacket on when the overhead lights decided to flicker.  
"They've been doing that all morning," Heero said. "Registers seem fine."  
"Maybe it's just the lights then," Ray reasoned, as he took the next customer in line. "Need new bulbs or something..."  
"Go to lunch," Mark said to Heero. "Ray and I got you covered for an hour."

Heero shoved his work jacket under the counter after clocking out and headed for the frozen section for something slightly healthier than fast food when he got a text from Quatre.  
_Meet me in the break room?_  
Heero picked out some frozen pasta dinner and headed for one of the coolers up by the registers for something caffeinated that wasn't purely soda—Heero wasn't a fan of Mountain Dew, but Mountain Dew Limeade Kickstart was the pick-me-up he needed—when the lights flickered again.  
_Sure_ , he thumbed back. _Save me a microwave back there, I want my lunch before the lights go out_.

Heero could hear the customers murmuring as he scanned his items at the self checkout.  
"They're saying it's just too hot and we're not used to it," one customer said. "Do you think it's some kind of malfunction?"  
Heero put his discount through and then his debit, trying to at least make sure his items were paid for in the event of a power failure. That was all he needed, to be told he stole three cred's worth of food because the power went out.  
_Unless I went through a backdoor and fabricated a receipt..._ The system wasn't _that_ hard to hack into. Probably. Heero never tried, but Winnermart's systems were older than he was, so it probably wasn't that hard.  
"Obviously," said another. "This isn't Earth, you know."  
_Oh no, Earth has malfunctions_ , Heero thought as he waited for his receipt to print. _It's called 'natural disasters'._

Heero shoved his receipt in his pocket and headed for the break room, where Quatre was the only one back there. Heero threw his TV dinner in the microwave and set the timer when the lights flickered again.  
"Is this an isolated thing?" Heero asked. "Did Winnermart not pay the bill or something?"  
"As far as I know everything is paid for," Quatre answered. "I checked the news and didn't see any articles about it...but then again, that doesn't necessarily mean anything either since the power hasn't failed."  
"Maybe someone tampered with the wires."  
Quatre took a sip of tea. "Would someone actually do that?"  
"I wouldn't put it past anyone here."

Heero just retrieved his lunch from the microwave when the break room was plunged into darkness, though the music that played through the overhead speakers continued. After a minute, the emergency lights came on, which improved things, but not by much. Heero sat down next to Quatre and spent the first chunk of their lunch in silence, the music louder than usual due to the usual hustle and bustle being halted. There were people in the back room area yelling to each other in an attempt to figure out what was going on, but no one really had an answer except, "I don't know!" which wasn't really helpful to anyone.

Quatre wrapped his hands around his styrofoam cup, the steam barely visible in the glow of the amber coloured emergency lights.  
"I didn't know you and Duo were...together at one point."  
Heero sighed, fork halfway to his mouth. "Do we really need to talk about this?"  
"I can tell you still care about him, Heero." He addressed the cup more than he addressed Heero. "The way you acted around him yesterday... I felt the longing you had for him." He turned to look at Heero.  
"You missed him."  
Heero said nothing at first, instead opting to poke at the ricotta on his pasta.  
"Are you sure it was longing you felt?" Heero asked.

Quatre leaned back in his seat. "Yes."  
"I think you're full of shit." _Longing for my ex. Like I haven't heard that before..._ He wasn't going to admit that there may or may not have been some truth to that. What good would it do him anyway to jump right back into a relationship with someone who had _left him_? He hadn't seen Duo in a few months, barely even talked to him.  
"And even if you weren't," Heero continued, punctuating his words with a stab of his fork through a clump of spinach, "I'd rather be friends. Duo and I haven't talked in months."  
"That doesn't stop some people."  
"I'm not 'some people', Quatre."

Quatre sighed. "You can't even be honest with yourself."  
Heero gave him a sidelong glance. "It's not that I'm not being honest with myself. Maybe I don't feel that way about Duo anymore. Maybe I've moved on to someone else."  
_You are so full of shit_ , Heero thought, and he wasn't sure if he was referring to him not being honest with himself or if it was referring to him moving on.

Because Heero definitely hadn't moved on.

Heero Yuy didn't just 'move on' from things.

Quatre crumpled up the paper wrapper his McDonalds burger had come in.  
"So who then, if not Duo?"  
Heero tossed his empty plastic tray in the trash and got up from his seat.  
"I'm done with this conversation."  
"Heero, please." Quatre got up after him.  
"You can try and play Matchmaker all you want, but it's not gonna work. Relena tried and failed—Dorothy ended up breaking up with me to date her instead. Trowa tried and failed. Twice. We dated for a couple of months if that, and the second time he tried to set me up on a blind date from someone he'd met on Tinder, and that ended in a fiery inferno. Literally. The fire department was called. You're not gonna be any different."

Quatre huffed as Heero walked away, using the flashlight on his phone to see by; he ended up running after him since there was no sense remaining in a dark room by himself, not to mention he wanted to see if anyone was following the proper procedure for a blackout. He was there for a reason, after all. A business related one, not just a personal one.

"What if the person I wanted you to give a chance was...me?"  
Quatre nearly bumped into Heero, covered his mouth with his hands. Did he really just tell Heero that?  
_Is this really the time for that, Quatre?_ he mentally scolded himself. _Maybe he didn't hear me. Please tell me he didn't hear me..._  
"Did you hear that?"  
"Did you hear what I said—"  
"Listen," Heero interrupted. "What does that sound like?"

Quatre focused on the silence, trying to find what Heero was talking about when he heard a soft, rhythmic _beep_.  
"What does that sound like to you?"  
Quatre blinked. "Like a barcode scanner on a register."  
"They're still ringing people out."  
Quatre stayed close, but not too close, when Heero started walking again.  
"But they're not supposed to—who told them to?"

Heero pushed through the employee only doors, holding them open long enough so Quatre could walk through them, and let them slam shut behind him as he made his way up to the front, where Kate was in an argument with one of the cashiers.  
"You are not supposed to be ringing people up!"  
"But the registers are still running!" the cashier argued. The customer looked between the cashier and Kate, her two purchases still in her hands.  
"I don't give a damn if the registers are still running, the power _isn't_ , and policy states no one gets checked out until all of the power is back on."

That cashier completely ignored Kate.  
"The store manager said to get customers out the door for as long as registers are working. Until he tells me different, I keep scanning." She looked to the customer. "Miss, please place your things on belt. I scan, you pay."  
Quatre couldn't believe what he was seeing. Lines in every direction, carts full of everything imaginable, every register open... Customer service was at a standstill, the registers out completely over there, although it looked like Mark was trying to reboot one of the registers by sacrificing someone's returned can of chicken bullion via some burning cardboard...  
"So... Do you want to do something about this?" Heero asked.  
Quatre took a breath. "I suppose I will have to." He removed his fake glasses and rubbed off the (still really badly drawn) fake mustache. He approached Kate.

"Can I help you?" she asked, frustration evident on her face, though her tone was soft, controlled, and kind. "Wait. Quattro? What do you need?"  
"Actually," Quatre said, as he placed his glasses in his shirt pocket. "My name is Quatre Raberba Winner, Winner Enterprises' CEO."  
All colour drained from Kate's face.  
"Please don't be alarmed," Quatre reassured. "You aren't in trouble—You're doing everything right. Your store manager—where is he?"  
"I don't know," Kate said. "I saw him leave the building earlier, but I don't know if he's gone for the day, or..."

Quatre grabbed a walkie from the CSM podium and turned it on.  
"Who is here for management?"  
No response.  
"Store Manager Al?"  
"This is ZS Marta. He's gone for the day."  
Quatre was not happy about that. He looked at his watch.  
"What time does he usually leave for the day?" he asked Kate.  
"Usually around 5pm."  
_Well it's nowhere near 17:00_ , Quatre thought. _Obviously couldn't be bothered to stick around._

"What assistant managers are here?"  
Kate shrugged. "I haven't seen anyone, but depending on who's here, that might not be all that surprising."  
Quatre quirked an eyebrow. "Oh?"  
"The ones who do their jobs don't last long here," Heero answered. "We're down to three ASMs and...while I agree that managers are more 'behind the scenes', usually when you do see them, they're doing paperwork or something important. But if it's who I think it is..."  
"They're probably sitting around doing nothing all day with a clipboard in their hands," Kate finished.  
_Well that's no good either._

"What other managers are here, ZS Marta?" Kate asked into the radio. "Corporate is visiting and they would like to speak to them."  
"Is it wise to tell them that?" Heero asked.  
Kate shrugged. "Maybe it'll get them to come out of their hidey holes."  
"Drew and Geoff _were_ here," Marta answered, her voice not entirely steady, "but they're gone for the day too."  
"Figures," Kate murmured. "No wonder we fail every single Corporate visit."  
Quatre couldn't help but laugh a little. "Would you like me to be honest?"  
"Please."  
"Your upper management problems are only _part_ of why the store is failing, and even then it's a small part."

Heero took the radio from Quatre.  
"So then who is in charge of the store?"  
"Well our co-manager quit as of yesterday, Father—I mean, Store Manager Al left for the day along with Drew and Geoff... The other ASM is off rotation... So that leaves only ZMS associates in charge."  
"And who are they?"  
"Kate and myself. A lot of the department managers left for the day as well, so..."  
Quatre took a deep breath, his mouth a hard line as he turned to face Kate.

"So let me get this straight."  
"Can I have a key turn over at register 92?" came over the walkie.  
"Just a minute," said Kate.  
"Not only does your store manager go against policy in regards to cashing people out, which is an asset protection issue since we have no way of verifying payment went through until the power is back and the merchandise has left... But he also decides to leave for the day instead of following procedure to make sure certain things are set and that all customers and associates have vacated the building before locking it."  
"Unfortunately that's what it looks like."

Quatre thought for a moment at how to best explain management's role in the store without it being long winded or too complicated.  
"Think of the store as a ship. At the top you have your captain. Under him you have your crew, some with higher rank than others, but most of them are equal. There are passengers who ask for voyage—those are your customers. People will defect once they feel that their leaders of authority have deserted them."  
Heero gave a hint of a smirk. "That's why OZ ended up having so many different factions."  
"I think that was one of the bigger reasons, yes."  
"Poor management leads to high turnover rates which leads to productivity suffering... It ends up being a snowball."  
Kate nodded in agreement.

"Can I _please_ have a key turn?"  
"You're going to have to wait," Kate said. "I'm in a very important meeting."  
"Now if the ship is sinking, you ensure that all of your passengers are on the lifeboats first, followed by your crew, and then you are the last one off as captain of the ship. If the captain abandons ship before then, what does that make him?"  
"An asshole," Heero said.  
Kate chewed her lip. "I'm sorry for my associate's language, Mr Winner—"  
"Please." Quatre smiled. "Just 'Quatre' is fine, Kate. And you have nothing to apologise for, because I am aware of how Heero talks to people."

Kate looked at him in disbelief.  
"As I said before, you are doing everything right. If people would listen to you..."  
"Unfortunately when the boss is away, no one cares and everyone plays. They do what they feel like doing and that's that."  
Quatre looked at Heero, who nodded.  
"ZS Kate, I have a _customer waiting here_ and I need an override!"  
"I think I have someone who can help get the cashiers to listen. Go take care of customer service."  
Kate nodded.  
"Do you have a list of emergency closing SOPs or something?"  
Kate handed over a few stapled sheets of paper to Heero.

"Now... Who holds keys to the store?" Quatre asked Kate, as they both headed for customer service.  
While Quatre was talking to Kate, Heero climbed up onto the currently unused register fifteen, where he could see everyone and everyone could (hopefully) see him. The flimsy metal cabinet the register was set on wasn't the sturdiest he had ever been on top of, and one customer expressed her concern for him being on such a precarious object, but it held up enough with only a _little_ bit of swaying. At just a little over 120 pounds, Heero didn't really worry much about it buckling completely.

"Can I have everyone's attention?"  
No one paid him any mind, except one of the nearby cashiers, who told him to get down from the register.  
_How do you not hear someone standing maybe ten feet away from you?_ He tried again, with similar success. He looked around for anything that could help project his voice, and spotted a phone connected to the internal line bolted to the pole the register sign and light were attached to. He grabbed the receiver and dialed the number combination used for the paging system. The music abruptly cut off.

"Attention Winnermart customers and associates." Every cashier stopped what they were doing and looked over at him, probably wondering what weirdo was standing atop a register and why he was doing such a thing. Customers stopped placing their bagged purchases in their carts, others stopped placing items on the belt that could kind of move when the cashier advanced it.

Heero glanced down at the SOPs for What to Do in the Event of a Power Failure as he cradled the handset between his ear and his shoulder.  
"Due to a power failure of an unknown cause, we must ask that you stop ringing up customers and begin ushering out customers. Once all customers are out of the store, please begin manually counting down your registers. A CSM will be around with an audit sheet to manually audit them. Please place all receipts in your blue register bags if they say 'offline sales, please retain and hand in to the accounting office' at the bottom." He flipped over the page.

"We ask that all customers leave their carts _where they are_ and exit the building in an orderly fashion. You cannot take any of your purchases with you if they were made after 11am as, due to the power failure, we are unable to properly verify if payment has gone through. Any charges on your credit card or bank statements from today will be refunded after they are brought to our attention within three to five business days."

There was a murmur among the customers as they began walking away from their carts and cashiers stood by, watching them go.  
"If you are unable to get to the doors without assistance, please let your cashier know and accommodations will be brought to you. Customer service, please open the sliding doors so customers can exit in a timely and orderly fashion."

"I keep ringing!" yelled the cashier who had given Kate such a hard time.  
"Failure to comply with anything outlined in this procedural guide," Heero continued, "will result in disciplinary action up to and including termination." He turned to the last page, which listed the hierarchy in the event one or more levels were missing.  
_Convenient._  
"Your managers on duty are Front End Zone Supervisor Kate and Receiving Zone Supervisor Marta. Failure to listen to their instructions will result in disciplinary action up to and including termination. In the event of conflicting instructions, follow the strictest one."

All of the cashiers save for the one who insisted on ringing out customers stared at him.  
"You've been given your instructions. Follow them."  
Heero hopped down from the register as customers slowly but surely left the store. Some were less than thrilled about leaving their shopping behind; others went out of their way to stop by customer service and commend Kate on how she was handling the situation.

When Heero rejoined them both at the service desk, Quatre had a list of things that needed to be checked off before anyone could leave for the day.  
"We need to make sure that the Foods associates are closing up the coolers and freezers and that everything is accounted for in the event we need to damage it all out. Most likely we will need to..." Quatre looked at the phone.  
"Does that work in a power failure?"  
"It's a corded landline, it should."  
"Then we will page instructions for the other associates to follow."

Heero looked at the walkie he still had.  
"Who carries a radio on them?"  
"Managers of all stripes, Personnel, Site to Store... Electronics, Fabrics, Fitting Room, Garden Center, and Service Desk have walkie bases."  
"And most of those people have left for the day," Quatre said.  
"Electronics need to be secured," Heero added. "And those drawers need to be manually counted out as well."  
"I'll make sure the CSMs are on top of it," Kate said.

Heero shook his head, radio already to his mouth. "Electronics?"  
Amidst some minor static came a, "Go for Electronics."  
"Is there anyone you can use to ensure the cage in the back is locked and all the cases are secured?"  
"Yeah, Ryan's on top of that right now."  
"And the drawers?"  
"70's busted and 68 wasn't used, so it's just 67 that needs to be opened..."  
"And Photo?"  
"Rhonda hasn't had a customer all day."

Heero leaned over the counter to look at the register layout. Service desk and Electronics were the only touch screen registers in the store.  
"Are you signed in?"  
"No, someone else is."  
"Log in on your numbers and hit Open Cash Drawer under the Misc. tab." He looked at Kate. "You got a palm pilot?"  
Kate nodded. "Always, unfortunately."  
"It should come through on there, so you don't need to go back there with a key."  
Sure enough, the palm pilot beeped.

"Um..." Cheyenne approached the counter.  
"What's up?" Kate asked, as she approved the override request.  
"The computers are down and the time clock in the back is out so... How do we clock out?"  
Kate looked through the SOP booklet in her hands. "Of course there isn't a procedure for that, but there is literally a procedure on how to get the toilets to flush during a power failure."  
"I'll get a sheet of paper that associates can use to clock out on," Quatre said, heading for the printer over in vision center. Cheyenne followed.  
"Good idea."

Heero looked over Quatre's checklist before grabbing the phone up at service desk, and pressed the 'page all' button.  
"Winnermart Foods and Backroom associates, please take stock of all inventory currently in the following places: the cooler and freezer over in Grocery, the meat bunker over in Foods action alley, and the fridge and freezer over in the Foods bin areas. Create an inventory sheet complete with labels and affix them to each one. Please remember to seal them when you're finished to keep them as cold as possible—cover them with cardboard if necessary." Heero held the receiver hook down, but didn't replace the actual receiver just yet.

"Does anyone have eyes on any Foods associates?" Heero said into the walkie.  
"I do," said Wufei. "I'm the only department manager who hasn't abandoned the place yet."  
"Can you make sure they actually carry out what I've told them to do?"  
"Roger."  
Heero checked another thing off the list. "Anything else?"  
"Sporting Goods."  
Heero hit the paging button again.  
"Sporting Goods associates, please ensure all weapons are locked up in their appropriate places."  
As soon as Heero hung up, the phone rang. He answered.

"Customer service."  
"Yeah, I was wondering how much a propane exchange was—"  
"Unfortunately our store has no power, so we can't sell anything to you."  
"What if I just leave my info and some money?"  
"Still can't do that. Sorry." Heero hung up the phone again.

"All that's left is for associates to leave the building as soon as they're done with their assigned duties." Heero nodded over to the admin office door on the other side of the front end. "Do you have keys for that and the accounting office?"  
Kate nodded. "Yes. One of the few things I am allowed to have all the keys to in this place."  
"All of the pulls from the drawers will need to be placed in there for safekeeping until power is restored and accounting associates can go through them, in the event the place gets looted in an extended failure. Have CSMs place their audit sheets with their respective bags so they can use them as a comparison since a 3 action code can't take place."  
Kate turned to Mark. "Did you get all of that?"  
Mark grunted in response. "As if I don't have enough to do."  
"I can help with that," Heero said.

Mark looked away from his manual drawer audit for register 91 and to Heero.  
"And just what credentials do _you_ have to be qualified? How do we know you're not gonna just walk off with the money?"  
"Mark—"  
Heero shook his head.  
"I wouldn't extort money from a company that supports a charity I founded, that's just being an asshole."  
Mark's eyes narrowed.  
"I killed ten Leos during the wars and do charity here and there and that doesn't make me qualified to handle money."  
"So then what _does_ qualify you to handle money, outside of the tag on your name badge that says you're a customer service supervisor? Or is that the only qualification you have?"

Kate couldn't help but snicker, though she tried to hide it behind her hand.  
"Now, do you want help counting out the registers and putting them away, or..."  
Mark said nothing at first. Then, "Whatever. It's up to Kate."  
"Come with me to the cash office, I'll get you a second tellermate," Kate said.  
"Where's Ray?" Mark asked. "He's a CSM, shouldn't he be helping me with this?"  
"He's helping see customers out," Quatre said. "Sorry I took so long, so many people were asking questions about the nearest stores..."

It took a few hours, but gradually everything was finished up, with Heero and Quatre helping Kate tidy up any loose ends. Associates left in groups, probably to hang out after now that most of their shifts ended hours before they were scheduled to, or maybe they thought it wasn't safe outside, and safety was usually found in groups.  
"All that's left is to lock up what we can," Quatre said, "since you're not a keyholder. I will make sure that you're not held responsible if something happens."  
Kate nodded. "Thanks you two—seriously."  
"It's our natural inclination to help people in crisis situations," Quatre said. "After all, Heero and I were both in Preventers for a number of years. That drive doesn't just disappear. That aside, it is also my duty as the President and CEO of Winnermart to ensure the safety of my employees."

After all of the doors were locked except for one inner door and one outer door (since they didn't have the keys to lock those from the outside, and they had to get out somehow), Kate waved goodbye to Heero and Quatre and set out for her car, cell phone to her ear about halfway there.  
"I think Kate would make an excellent store manager, I doubt many would be able to handle a situation like this without being overwhelmed." Quatre made a note of it.

"Now what?" Heero asked. "I doubt there's power anywhere since the whole colony is out." It didn't take a genius to figure that out unless they thought that 2:30pm was part of the night cycle.  
"It can't be too bad if it's just the lights that are out... Now if the life systems go as well..."  
"Those, I'm pretty sure, are on some backup generator, which probably has its own backup on top of that."  
Quatre hummed in agreement.

"There's a dining area at the hotel I'm staying at. Providing they have power, we can always stay there..."  
"And if they don't?"  
"Then I can't even get in my room since the locks are all electronic." Quatre sighed. "Which means I have no clothes or anything until the power comes back if that is the case."  
Heero walked to the end of the pavement to see how far traffic was backed up. There were very few cars on the road, in fact, which meant people either stayed wherever they happened to be, they decided to walk, or roads were shut down and people were therefore stranded. Heero wasn't sure at that moment which it was, so he pulled out his phone to pull up his traffic app.

"You can always stay at my place until the lights come back."  
"If it's not too much trouble..." Quatre held up his phone. "I got an alert from my hotel. They might not have power until later tonight 'at the earliest' according to them."  
"Did they at least apologise for the inconvenience?"  
Quatre shook his head. "They did not."  
"There are some road closures," Heero said, scrolling through the app, "but they shouldn't bother us—I can squeeze through, and if they give us a hard time..." Heero pulled out his wallet, revealing his old Preventers ID badge.  
"Why do you still have that?"  
Heero shrugged as he put his wallet away. "Because I can't seem to let go of my past when it keeps popping up, so I've stopped trying to."

Heero gestured out to the Bumfuck Nowhere section of the parking lot, where his motorbike resided.  
"You mind riding on a bike?"  
Quatre shook his head.  
Heero led Quatre over to his motorbike, which was the only vehicle in that whole area of the parking lot.  
"I'm surprised you still ride. There aren't many roads built for motorbikes here," Quatre remarked. "It's not like it is on Earth..."  
"Cheaper than a car." Heero handed him the only helmet. "Bought it for a thousand creds, owner said it was a junker. Fixed it up, works great."

Quatre took the helmet. "Won't you get in trouble without one?"  
"I wasn't expecting to bring someone home with me or I would've brought my spare. If we get in a crash I'll probably survive fine even without one—you, on the other hand, probably won't. I'd probably end up shielding you from the worst of it anyway."  
Heero hopped on his bike, Quatre behind him as the engine roared to life. Quatre wrapped his arms tight around Heero's waist as they kicked off towards the place Heero called 'home'.

Through this close proximity, Quatre could catch a small whiff of Heero's cologne—and something else underneath it he couldn't place. It wasn't cigarette smoke, although he did also smell that under the cologne as well. This was different.

He decided now wasn't the time to ask about it.

* * *

Heero pushed the front door to his apartment open with more force than was usually necessary, but because of the midday humidity, the door ended up sticking. Quatre took a peek inside before Heero moved further in, revealing a small area where one could place coats, shoes, and other small things upon entering. Heero kicked off his boots and placed them in the boot tray right next to the door; Quatre followed suit with his own footwear before closing the door behind him.

"It's probably nothing like the grand hotels you're used to," Heero said, as he threw his jacket onto the arm of the couch.  
"I've stayed in conditions that would make this grander than the grandest of hotels," Quatre replied. "As you know, of course."  
Heero gestured to the couch. "I don't have much in the way of entertainment, that was Duo's thing."  
Quatre looked around the living room before sitting on the offered couch seat.  
"You don't smoke anymore?" He noticed the lack of ashtrays.  
Heero nodded towards the door. "Outside. They don't allow us to smoke in the apartments here."  
_Well that explains all of the coffee tins I saw on people's stoops._

Heero walked into the kitchen right off the living room.  
"Need anything?"  
"Water or tea would be fine... Unless you have something stronger than that." Quatre wasn't sure why he was anxious. Was it because of today's events? Was it because he was alone with Heero? That didn't even make sense, they had been alone together on many occasions during the war, and there were a few Preventers missions where it was just the two of them.  
_Those were all business, not leisure_ , he reasoned. _There wasn't any time for that._

Heero froze at the 'something stronger'.  
"I have some whiskey, half a bottle of wine, and..." _Several bottles of vodka_ , he finished in his head. "I do have some vodka, but I don't see that as being something you'd enjoy." He looked over the door of his fridge.  
"I didn't even know you drank." _He didn't even touch the not-spiked punch at that Preventers Christmas party, let alone the spiked one._  
"A glass of wine would be fine. Just something to take the edge off of today."

Heero took out the wine bottle, checking to make sure it hadn't turned to vinegar before grabbing a glass and filling half of it. Another glass he filled with whiskey.

_I need a drink like I need a hole in my head_. He tried to only fill the glass half full, but when he stared at it, bottle hovering over the glass still, his hand shook a little and he swallowed hard as that glass seemed to mock him.  
_What's a little more, huh?_ it seemed to say.  
"Is everything alright?"  
Heero snapped out of his thoughts, put the whiskey bottle away and shut the fridge with a little more force than was necessary.  
"Yeah. Just needed to make sure everything wasn't out of date first."

Heero handed the glass to Quatre before taking a seat next to him.  
"I don't have any wine glasses."  
Quatre smiled. "That's fine. Wine tastes just as good in a regular drinking glass." He raised his glass. "Cheers."  
"For?"  
"Surviving the day, I suppose."  
Heero clinked his glass against Quatre's. "I can drink to that."

_I can drink to anything._

* * *

"Heero..."  
Quatre leaned heavily against Heero's arm, his second glass of wine in his hand, half finished. He felt warm, so warm, and also fuzzy and a bit hazy. Maybe he felt warm because of Heero.  
"I meant what I said earlier."  
"Which was?"  
Quatre's face burned, but he was feeling bold.  
"How maybe you would consider me as an option."

Heero was silent, save for the deep breath he took.  
_That sentence I pretended I hadn't heard. Right._  
"Are you..." Heero stopped himself. He needed to word this carefully. Quatre had no idea what he would be getting into. Quatre didn't know, for example, that he drank every single night in amounts that would probably put a regular person in hospital. Quatre didn't know the fullest extent of how screwed up he was. He wasn't even sure Duo knew, or if any of the others he had dated knew.

No. On second thought, Duo probably knew him better than anyone else. The only thing different between then and now was Heero barely touched alcohol the three years they had been together, and now...

And how long could he keep all of these secrets from Quatre? Probably not very long.  
"What are you looking for with me?"  
"I don't know," Quatre answered, his voice soft. "Maybe it's stupid, but honestly, I don't know how I feel, except that I am rather fond of you."  
"Do you want to fuck me?"  
Heero felt Quatre tense against him.  
"I—" He sighed. "Heero." He closed his eyes, took a deep breath. "I'm in love with you. We can do that if you want. We can have something much more casual if that's what you want... Duo and I had that—"

Heero pulled away. "Why do you always have to bring Duo up?"  
"I am just making a statement about how this isn't the first time I've done something like this." He looked at Heero. "You asked me what I was looking for, didn't you?"  
Heero drained the rest of the whiskey.  
"So then what _do_ you want? Something casual?"  
Quatre moved much closer now.  
"If I said I wanted to have sex with you and then cuddle after, would you laugh at me?"  
"No."  
"And if I asked you if you would come to my hotel room... Would you?" He sat on Heero's lap, cupped Heero's face.  
"I would, but I don't think we'll make it that far."  
Slowly he wrapped his arms around Quatre's waist, pulled him flush to his torso. Quatre's hands fell to his shoulders.

Quatre's eyes searched Heero's, his face way too hot now. Too bad the lighting at his apartment wasn't all that great, it caused Heero's eyes to look darker than usual. Or maybe that was just the alcohol. Or some kind of lust. Desire? Quatre couldn't tell. Maybe it was all of the above or none of the above.  
"What do you mean?"  
"Neither of us is fit to drive and with the looks you're giving me, I don't think we'd be able to get there in time."  
Quatre pressed his forehead to Heero's. "I see... Then we will just have to stay here and indulge."  
"Are you sure?" Heero's voice was barely above a whisper. "We don't have to."  
"I'm sure."  
"I still don't think you know what you're getting into when it comes to being with me. Even with something like this."  
"Does anyone know what they're doing when it comes to love?"

Heero couldn't answer before Quatre kissed him.  
_You're gonna regret this later on_.


	5. Blackout II

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> If you're going to pick a fight or try something on someone, make sure they're not a former Gundam Pilot before doing so so you don't make a fool out of yourself. Marta learns this lesson the hard way. Meanwhile, Kate, Ray, Quatre, Heero, and Duo are all trying to get the store in order while there are no customers to interrupt them. Heero and Duo share a moment in Duo's apartment, which ends up leaving Duo wanting answers he may or may not get, because this is Heero we're talking about and sharing his feelings is not his forte.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter inspired in part by Tove Lo's "Habit (Stay High)" and a two separate blackouts that happened at my workplace--one only lasted a few minutes (but is the one that inspired the previous chapter the most), the other was due to a freak snowstorm/blizzard in October 2011 and the aftermath from that. I debated heavily with myself as to whether this should go the same route the original RP for Winnermart did, which was add in characters from other series as employees of the fine establishment known as Winnermart Stores Inc., and I decided... "Why not?"
> 
> (Knowledge of the other series is not necessary due to the added characters not being up and front most of the time, so don't worry if you don't recognise someone.)
> 
> Enjoy! This chapter took a while to write since every time I went through it I added or took something away--I have the tendency to do that. Between that and other things happening in real life, this chapter took the longest out of the ones posted so far. Feedback is appreciated as always, and kudos are more than welcome too.

_September 25, AC 205_  
_Early morning_

"Good morning, Duo, sorry if I woke you up or this is a bad time."  
Duo rubbed at his eyes as he stifled a yawn, or at least tried to aim it away from the microphone on his phone. He wasn't sure how successful he was at that.  
"I got like an hour or two before I gotta be at work," he answered, as he stared at the ceiling of his bedroom. He didn't even bother sitting up. "What'cha need, Kate?"  
"I was just going to inform you that you don't need to report to work today if you don't want to."

_That_ got Duo's attention. He sat up, ignoring the minor head spin that caused. The thin sheet he had covering him fell away, revealing the way too big sleepshirt he wore, a shirt that wasn't even his to start with. Back when he and Heero lived together, even before they were dating, they found out by accident that they had similar taste in clothes and were around the same size. Heero always had much looser clothing for sleeping and working out, and Duo, for a reason even he had no clue of, always took his sleep tops. It got to a point where half of Duo's pajamas weren't even his.

Still weren't his.

"What?"  
"The store lost power yesterday a little after 11am, and it hasn't come back yet. We can't open the store to the public, but you can still work your scheduled shift—or any kind of shift, really—to help clean up the messes the customers left. It's up to you."  
Duo hummed in thought.  
"You can come in out of dress code if you want," she said, as if to sweeten the deal.  
"Jeans and a t-shirt okay?"  
"Yes. At this point I'd be happy if you at least wore pants."

Duo grabbed his watch, squinted at the time.  
"Gimme fifteen minutes, I'll be there in twenty."  
"Awesome! Thanks so much."  
"So exactly _how_ many people did you get to agree to this?"  
"Not very many," Kate admitted. "It's just you, Quatre, Heero, Ray, and Marta."  
_Naturally Kat and Heero would be there. They don't know what the hell a day off is meant for._  
"Ain't surprised. I'll see ya soon."  
"Thanks again."

Duo dropped his phone next to him on the bed and stared at the ceiling some more.  
_Heero's just gonna have to deal with me working there if he's got a problem. Ain't entirely sure he **does**._  
His phone went off again and Duo looked at the screen. His heart nearly leapt from his chest to his mouth when he saw who it was.  
_Need a ride?_  
It was from Heero. Since when did Heero text him anymore?  
_The hell is he on?_

Wasn't this what Duo wanted? To be back on friendly terms with Heero? Why was he even questioning it? He literally had his best friend back and here he was questioning why.  
_Sure, if it's on the way_ , he texted back. He didn't know where Heero lived anymore, if he was still in that apartment on the border of the downtown and suburban areas, the one with the nosy as hell neighbour who was always questioning whoever Heero was bringing over—usually him, sometimes him and Trowa if it was Competitive Game Night and Wufei if Trivial Pursuit or Scrabble were on the menu.

Then it occurred to Duo. _How the hell does Heero know where I live?!_  
He got up from his bed and figured he may as well get dressed.  
_Kat probably told him since I **did** mention to him where I ended up..._  
He pulled out a shirt and did the Sniff Test.  
_Then again this is **Heero** I'm talking about..._  
He threw it on and found his favourite pair of jeans on the floor, the ones with the small rip on his inner thigh about two inches above his knee. The very same ones Heero loved to see him in.  
_Who the fuck are you dressing for?!_

He had just finished finding a clean pair of socks—Duo really needed to do laundry one of these days, or buy more socks or something—when his doorbell rang.  
"Well fuck."  
He walked over to the door and answered it. There in a plain tank top, leather jacket, and dark wash Levi's was Heero. Duo poked his head out to find that Heero was alone.  
"Quatre's in the car," Heero said, answering Duo's unspoken question.  
Duo leaned against the door jamb. "Oh. Wasn't expectin' ya so soon."  
"You know I like to be prompt...unlike some people I know."  
Duo smirked before pushing off the door frame and heading over to the pile of shoes he had near the door.  
"You can come in, you know."

So Heero did, and shut the door.  
"Should only take a minute to find a matching pair, I got it down to a science."  
Heero scoffed, the tiniest hint of amusement in his eyes as he shook his head and crossed his arms, leaning back against the wall right next to the front door.  
"You haven't changed much, have you?"  
"Nope!" He grinned as he held up two matching boots. "Still never on time for when you pick me up despite only livin' ten minutes away."

Duo shoved his boots on, didn't even need to lace them up.  
"Just like old times," Heero said, with just the right amount of nostalgia in his voice.  
Duo and Heero looked at each other for a moment or two. Duo looked away first, feeling awkward as hell. It was wrong for him to assume that things would go back to the way they were, to act like nothing had happened. But it was hard, so hard, for Duo to _not_ act like he was when he was with Heero.  
"Uh... Lemme just brush my hair and teeth and I'll be all set to go."  
Heero pushed away from the wall. "Where's your brush?"  
Duo tilted his head a little.  
"Why?"

Heero walked down a short hallway and through the first door he found, which happened to be Duo's bedroom.  
"Do you always barge into other people's private spaces?"  
"You're the one who invited me in."  
"Not to my bedroom—"  
"Brush your teeth." Heero grabbed the brush off Duo's dresser. "I'll brush and braid your hair." He raised an eyebrow, silently challenging Duo to object.  
Duo led him to the bathroom, which was across the hall. He got to work brushing his teeth, all the while watching Heero in the mirror...especially his face.

That look of reverence as Heero pulled the hair tie free and gently undid the loosely woven braid Duo always used for bedtime. He tensed a little when Heero's fingers combed through his hair, but by the time he was almost done brushing his teeth, his shoulders slumped and he leaned into Heero as Heero brushed through it. Duo rinsed out his mouth and wiped the excess water off on his arm, which he then wiped off on his jeans because the hand towel was too far away and Duo didn't care to tug his hair out of Heero's hands.

Duo braced himself against the sink, eyes closed as he felt Heero weave three thick sections of hair together. It used to put him at ease, having Heero braid his hair. It made him think of happier, simpler times, times he knew he couldn't get back and he often tried not to think about. Duo didn't usually let other people touch his hair, let alone braid it; Heero had been the first and so far only one allowed to do so. It was one of the few things that could calm him.

"Done."  
Heero was still behind him, his braid still in his hand. Duo turned around, leaned back against the sink, the end of the braid slipping out of Heero's hand and hitting the cabinet under the sink top.  
"Still remembered, huh?"  
"Yeah," Heero replied, his eyes staring straight into Duo's. Duo couldn't force himself to tear his gaze away. "It's not that difficult to braid hair, you know."  
"Yeah, well..." Duo shrugged. "I figured you'd pro'ly forgot how."

Heero eyes trailed to the hole in Duo's jeans.  
"You're wearing the jeans I like."  
Duo's eyes widened. _He still likes them_? Then again, just because they had broken up, that didn't mean that Heero suddenly stopped finding him attractive.  
"You remember that too?"  
"You're not exactly easy to forget," Heero confessed, closing the distance between them. "Duo..."  
"Hee—"

The rest of Heero's name was lost in his mouth. Duo bumped into the edge of the sink, his fingers gripping the sleeve of Heero's jacket, his other hand pulling Heero closer by his belt loop before resting his hand on his hip.  
"We're gonna be late," Duo murmured after pulling away just a little. "Ain't Kat tired of waitin'?"  
"He can wait a little longer," Heero answered, before kissing Duo again, this time harder, both hands gripping Duo's shoulders before sliding them down to brace the small of his back.  
In reality, Duo didn't give a shit if they were both 'late' or not. He wouldn't admit it, but he missed Heero. Missed him a lot. Missed being like this with him, feeling Heero's hands on him, breathing in his scent, tasting him... He pushed Heero against the wall of the bathroom, deepening the kiss as he traced the contours of Heero's heavily muscled torso through his shirt, slid his hands under the fabric and drank in the little moans Heero made from his touch.

Heero knew he shouldn't be doing this. Duo was his ex. Who the hell dated an ex again? And what about what happened between him and Quatre last night? What did that mean for them?  
What did this mean for him and _Duo_?  
What did anything mean?  
Heero broke off the kiss, knowing that continuing could easily lead to _other_ things, and those other things would make them _really_ late for work and possibly cause Quatre to call in a search party.

"What does this mean—"  
"Let's go. We're gonna be late."  
"But—"  
"You said we were gonna be late and I'm not the type to be late."  
Duo blinked, removing his hands from under Heero's shirt. "O-Oh. Right. But Heero—"  
Heero was already in the living room, so Duo followed, grabbing his wallet and keys on the way.  
"'Ro, wait a minute."  
Heero stopped just short of the door at 'Ro'.  
"We gotta talk about it at _some_ point."

Heero opened the door. "We will. Later."  
Duo was right behind him. "Promise?"  
"Yeah."  
Duo grabbed his arm. He didn't like the fact that Heero was in such a rush to get out of there.  
" _Promise_?"  
Heero turned his head and looked at him over his shoulder, his eyes softening just a little.  
"I promise."

_That kiss better mean something to you._

* * *

The store was quiet. Unnaturally quiet. The hum of the registers was nonexistent, the usual din of customers was absent, and no music was playing overhead. Written in sharpie were signs taped to all of the doors that exclaimed **CLOSED - NO POWER**. Dressed in a pair of what appeared to be sweatpants and a loose fitting tank top was Kate, her hair tied back at the nape of her neck. She was slowly bringing up a few carts tied together loosely with some big trash bags to facilitate easier transport to customer service for sorting. Ray, who looked like he had just rolled out of bed, was already in the process of sorting, with several carts made for different departments already. There were even signs taped to them.

"Thanks for showing up," Kate said, when she spotted Heero, Duo, and Quatre. "This isn't even half of it, this is just what was by the registers..." She looked to Quatre. "Quatre, would you mind going around and rounding up whatever carts you find? Just bring them up here and then once we've got all of them, you can help sort. I've cleared the front end, so it's just the outlying areas of the store."  
Quatre nodded, heading off towards Apparel to begin his Quest for the Missing Carts.

"Marta needs help back in Receiving with some pallets of merch. Would you help her?"  
Heero shrugged off his jacket. "Yeah. Let me just throw my jacket somewhere first."  
"Whaddya got for me?" Duo asked.  
"Would you go to the patio and help clean up there? Apparently customers started literally dropping plants and soil everywhere for some reason... I'm sure Aya would appreciate any of the help he can get."  
"Sure."  
"There's a floor broom over by the maintenance cart in the backroom over by the Electronics bins you can use to sweep everything into a pile, and a shop-vac to suck it all up. Aya's gonna be zoning the plants and writing up claims for anything broken."  
Duo saluted before heading off to the back.

_Who the hell is Aya? The new department manager of L &G?_ Duo had heard the whispers in the break room about how they were finally getting a department manager who did actual work, as opposed to the one who was just let go two days ago.  
_This'll be interesting... I wonder what kind of person she is..._

* * *

So far, Quatre had found ten carts just in the Juniors' section alone, all clustered together with various items of apparel in them and draped over them. One customer even left her purse there, which contained her wallet, her keys, a water bottle, and an object Quatre decided to not question. He tethered all of them together and hauled them towards customer service for Kate and Ray to sort through.  
"What should I do with this purse?"  
Kate held her hand out. "I'll put it in the cash office until the customer calls us looking for it, or Laura calls them up."  
"How does someone forget their gigantic assed purse?" Ray asked as Kate looked through it to see if there was any form of ID inside.  
"Especially when there's three wallets full of credit cards, a check book, their driver's license, their ESUN ID Number... Someone with ill intent could easily steal their identity."

Kate also pulled out a whole bunch of blouses, some jewelry, and several smartphones—all with the security tags still on them.  
"I love it when thieves are thwarted by their own stupidity," Ray said with a grin.

In Missus, the situation was even more bizarre, with carts full of nothing but paper towels scribbled on with sharpie, something about the Rapture and aliens and the 'Second Coming of Heero Yuy'—the last thing made Quatre laugh. There were also pamphlets detailing how one could 'save' themselves to be accepted into the Paradise Heero Yuy himself set forth when he was 'tragically martyred to save us all'. The more he read, the stranger it made him feel until he had to set the stack down.

_No wonder some people think some religions sound ridiculous_ , Quatre thought. _Whoever wrote these sounds like a real nutter_.

He consolidated them all into one cart and then wheeled them off to Kate and Ray, who he hoped would find humour in them like he did, before going back for the now empty carts and putting those in the cart rail. As he headed towards the Fitting Rooms, he could just barely hear Kate yell, "Did someone seriously turn Heero Yuy into Jesus Christ?!"

* * *

Duo learned two things really fast in Lawn and Garden.

The first thing was that the place was such a disaster area, it looked like a tornado tore through the entire area (which was impossible because natural disasters didn't happen up in the colonies). Dirt and soil were scattered in places it had absolutely no business being in. There were shrubs hanging from the rafters. Seed packets were thrown all over the place. There was a chainsaw just resting in the middle of an aisle filled with back to school clearance.

The second thing was that the department head had hideous taste in sweaters.  
_Seriously, who the hell wears a bright fuckin' orange sweater in the middle of Septemeber anyway?!_  
But Duo had seen much, much worse, and decided to give the poor bastard a break. Maybe it was a gift and they wore the sweater to make someone happy.  
_How could something that bright make someone happy?_

As he approached Aya, push broom clearing a path through the dirt covered floor, Duo was able to get a good look, and discovered something rather interesting...  
_I don't think I've ever met a lass who matched me in height._ A couple had come close—Noin and Une were the first ones to come to mind—but even then they were still a few inches shorter than he was.  
_Wherever the hell Aya comes from, they must be really fuckin' tall. Unless it ain't Aya_.

"You Aya?" He stopped in front of the orange turtleneck wearing Lawn and Garden associate, leaning heavily on the push broom as he watched Aya reset a watering can feature. Aya turned and Duo nearly laughed at how much the narrowed eyes he got in return reminded him of Heero.  
"You're the associate Kate said she was sending me?"  
_Oh my fucking god you are **not** a lass_.  
"Uh." At first Duo had no idea what to even say. _That'll teach ya to judge someone by their name._ "Yeah."  
"When you're done sweeping up the soil, there's a bunch of broken ceramic pottery outside that needs cleaning up. I have a cart out there set aside for it with all of the information for Claims filled out already. When you're done, come see me, I'm sure I have other things for you to do."

As Aya walked away and into an aisle with barely any product left on the shelves, Duo stared after him a little bit until he remembered he was assigned a task to complete.  
_Not only is he a dude, but he reminds me of Zechs. So serious business and shit, with a voice that says 'don't fuck with me'._

* * *

"So these pallets here are gonna go to the patio," Marta explained, pointing them out with her flashlight since there were no lights in Receiving. "They're gardening tools or something, I don't know. But they belong out there."  
Heero moved the pallet jack under one of the five pallets Marta pointed out.  
"Where in the patio?"  
"Oh, um..." Despite there being plenty of room for her to go around him, she brushed against Heero. "I'll show you where."

Heero's eyes narrowed at her sudden hesitation, but proceeded to follow her, the pallet of rakes and shovels trailing behind him. On his way he passed Aya, who he had said hello to when he first came back here, only to be met with silence in return, and Duo, who was creating a mountain of topsoil over by the Lawn and Garden registers. Duo looked at Marta as she passed and grabbed Heero's arm, stopping him briefly.  
"I don't trust her," Duo murmured.  
"What's wrong?"  
Duo shook his head. "Dunno but somethin' just don't feel... _right_ about her." He let go of Heero's arm. "Just be careful, okay? I'll be right here if ya need backup."  
Heero cocked an eyebrow at that, but he nodded before continuing to the patio, where Marta was waiting.  
_What kind of things has Duo heard for him to say something like that?_ He shook his head. _I can take care of myself._

Heero was beginning to feel uneasy when he saw the look she had on her face.  
"It can go right here," she said, pointing to a place behind several steel racks with things such as lawn chair cushions and other patio accessories that were large enough to provide extremely good obstruction from most vantage points. It didn't help that it was in a corner.  
"There isn't anywhere else I can put this? Why in the corner over there when the seeds and flower bulbs are over—"  
"Don't question me," she replied, her voice low. "Just do as you're told."  
"I'm pretty sure the sheet for the modular says they belong—"  
"The store manager lets me put things wherever I want. Now. Come here and place that pallet over here, Heero."

Heero let go of the pallet jack's handle.  
"You're already over there, why don't you bring it over there?"  
Marta let out a sign of aggravation.  
"Because I need you to lift the stuff off the pallet, dumbass. Now get your ass over here or I will coach you for insubordination."  
Heero walked over to the spot that Marta had pointed out and he had barely dropped the pallet on the floor when he felt Marta right behind him.  
"Can you not stand behind me?" Heero asked.  
"Shh. Just let me do everything, okay?"  
The hairs on the back of his neck stood on end, his muscles tensing as she whispered something in his ear that he couldn't hear due to his heart drowning it out. He shivered.

"What did you say?"  
"I said there are no cameras out here... And it's your word against mine. So we can do this the easy way or the hard way."  
"You think I'm honestly going to let you do anything?"  
She shoved him up against the steel, which clanged loudly thanks to the keys Heero had hanging off the back belt loop of his jeans hitting it, her hand in his hair, his hands on her shoulders preventing her from getting any closer than she already was.  
"I was an OZ soldier for five years, you know. I'm a lot stronger than you'd think."  
"So am I," Heero said, before shoving her off him and into a display of wind chimes overstock. Thanks to them being the wooden variety, all they did was clank together.

"How... How _dare_ you touch me!"  
Heero moved away from her, not once turning his back to her. Once she was no longer dazed, she hopped to her feet and came right at him. Heero was prepared for that and grabbed both of her wrists, which stopped her from advancing—or getting away.  
"What the hell are you trying to do?"  
Marta tried to break free of his grip, but she couldn't. Heero saw a flash of worry in her face.  
_You messed with the wrong person today._  
"Let me go!" She glared at him now. "Or I will tell everyone you tried to have your way with me—or better yet, I could tell everyone your _secret_."  
Heero remained as stoic as he could, his voice neutral when he asked, "Oh? And what would that be?"  
"How you do nothing but dr—"  
"What the ever loving fuck?"  
Duo popped his head over the metal structure, face filled with concern.

"Oh thank goodness!" Marta yelled in a slightly over-exaggerated matter. Heero let her go and she ran towards Duo, who backed away and used the broom he was still holding to create distance.  
"If you hadn't come, he would've done something unsavoury to me! He...He threatened to kill me!"  
Duo looked from Marta to Heero and back again.  
"Why you lyin'?"  
Marta blinked. "Lying? What—"  
"Heero don't kill nobody. He gave that up after the war."

Marta was speechless for a few seconds before she let out a high pitched squeal almost in dog whistle territory and stomped away from him, getting to the entrance to the patio before she spun around on her heel.  
"How dare you think I'm lying?! I'll make sure my father hears of this and fires _both_ your asses—you for trying to hurt me, and _you_ for standing by and letting him!"  
"If you're not gonna work, go home," Aya said to Marta as she headed for the patio exit, stomping past him and towards the back room. She made a rather complicated, but still incredibly rude gesture to him before throwing the doors to Receiving open.  
Duo looked to Heero.  
"The fuck was that all about?"  
Heero shook his head. "Don't worry about it."  
"Did you really threaten to kill her?"

The look Duo got in response answered that question for him.  
"She pick a fight or somethin' with—"  
"Duo. Don't worry about it."  
_'Don't worry about it' he says_ , Duo thought, as he watched Heero leave the patio. _What happened that you can't even tell **me**?_

* * *

The power had come back on just in time for all of them to clock out for the day, the store cleaner than it had been when it had first opened. Kate took a long stretch, muscles sore from all of the work she had accomplished in ten hours.  
"I'll sleep well tonight," she remarked, as she undid her ponytail. "I'm exhausted."  
"So what's the plan for tomorrow? I'm sure management'll be back since the power is too..." Ray hopped onto the customer service counter.

"I will have a talk with them," Quatre said. "Worse comes to worst? I'll clean house and start fresh. I may end up doing that regardless, because the leadership I've seen these past couple of days has far outranked anything anyone salaried has done in any store I've visited thus far." He smiled. "I'm very proud of you, Kate. You've gone above and beyond your position—I see bright things for your future here should you choose to go for them."  
_And believe me, there may be some opportunities opening up shortly after tomorrow._

"Please," Kate said. "Heero and Duo certainly went above and beyond too. I think they deserve more than A or B level jobs."  
Quatre nodded. "I agree completely; as I said, I may be starting fresh, in which case, there may be some opportunities for everyone to apply to, if that is what they want."

Kate removed the signs she had previously taped up on the doors and scribbled out the 'no power' part before putting them back up.  
"Just so no one gets any ideas since we still don't have a keyholder here," she said. "I'll see you guys tomorrow!"  
"I'm gonna head out too, see if I have any power at my place yet." Ray clocked out at the computer on the back service desk counter before hopping off it. "See you guys."

Quatre pulled out his phone. "Looks like power is up at my hotel." He smiled. "Would you like to...?"  
Heero shook his head. "I think I'm gonna stay home tonight."  
Duo nudged him. "What about that talk you were gonna give me, huh?"  
Quatre gave Heero a questioning look. "Talk?"  
"I never said when I was gonna have it," Heero said.  
"You said 'later'. Now it's later. Don't think you can just weasel your ass outta this one, Heero."  
Quatre edged towards the door. "Perhaps I should let you two discuss what you need to... Do you need a ride before I go?"

Duo shook his head. "Nah, I can walk. Heero and I gotta sort somethin' out."  
"Alright. I will see you tomorrow morning then... Hopefully."  
"That's if I don't kill Heero before then..."  
Once they were alone (and Duo made sure they were really alone), Duo nudged Heero again.  
"Start talkin'."  
"Not here."  
Duo gestured to the doors. "Start walkin' then."

_I ain't lettin' you get out of this one._

* * *

For the first few minutes, they walked in silence, Duo's hands at his sides, Heero's in his jean pockets. A gentle breeze swept through their hair, ruffled the collar on Heero's jacket.  
"So what was that kiss about this mornin'?"  
Heero took a deep breath and held it for a bit before slowly letting it go, his hands out of his pockets now.  
"I don't need no grand explanation, I just wanna know somethin'."  
"What?"

Duo brushed his hand against Heero's, saw him tense a little.  
"Did it mean anything?"  
Heero didn't answer him right away.  
"Heero."  
"I don't know."  
Duo stopped walking, bringing Heero to a stop with him.  
"Yesterday I spent the night with Quatre. Had a few drinks, he kissed me..."

Duo shoved his hands in his pockets, eyes wide.  
"You fucked him?"  
Heero nodded.  
"And you liked it?"  
They started walking again.  
"It was enjoyable, yeah."  
"So then why the hell're you barking up my tree if you've got Kat?"

Heero chortled a little. "Who said I have to choose between you and Quatre?"  
Duo blinked, opened his mouth to make some kind of retort, then thought better of it and closed it when nothing came to him. Who was Duo to judge anyway?  
"You're poly."  
"Yeah."  
"Oh." Duo didn't know what to say to that.  
"How does that make you feel?"  
Duo shrugged. "Ain't a bother to me. I don't mind, love is love, that whole thing."  
"So then would you mind if..."

Duo's eyes wandered over to a nearby duck pond.  
"Ya wanna sit at our favourite spot?"  
Heero looked over as well. "If you want to."  
Duo led Heero over to a bench a few feet away from the duck pond, which had a couple of ducks just chilling on the surface of the water.  
"We used to come here all the time," Duo said, a small smile on his lips as he rested his hands on his knees, tapping them a bit as he watched the ducks swim around without a care in the world.

"Look. I know we probably ain't gonna be back to the way we were ever again, and I fucked that up big time... You don't have to fall in love with me again, I'd be happy if we were just best buds if that's what ya wanted. But I felt something in that kiss." Duo ran a hand through his fringe.  
"But maybe I'm just lookin' into it too—"  
"No," Heero said. "You're right. About everything, minus the part about reading too much into it. But we've changed a lot since then, and not all of it's good."

Duo rested his elbows on the back of the bench.  
"Marta said you got a secret and you can't tell me what it is." Duo leaned his head back and started counting all the different shaped clouds.  
"It would stop you from wanting to get back together."  
"What the hell could possibly make me want to—"  
"It doesn't matter."  
Duo looked from the clouds to Heero. "What, you still bar hop or something?"  
"Not exactly."  
"We all party every now and then, it ain't the end of the—"

Duo sat up a little straighter.  
"'Ro." He brushed the back of his hand against Heero's. "You don't gotta tell me right now, even if I think I know. You tell me when you're ready. But whatever it is, I swear I would never stop loving you because of it. We can get through it."  
"Oh," Heero said softly. "Like we did those other times?"  
Duo winced. "We were 20, what the fuck did we know about anything? We're older now, that was almost five years ago. We ain't young and stupid no more." He reached for Heero's hand. "I'm okay with you bein' poly. I'm okay with you wantin' to be in a relationship with Kat too. And if somethin' changes? We talk about it then. We gotta talk things out instead of just screamin' and fightin' until we say shit we regret and then..."

A duck hopped out of the water and started wandering around the perimeter of the pond. Duo squeezed Heero's hand.  
"Heero. I'm still in love with you. That kiss this mornin', you braidin' my hair, you chidin' me like you did every goddamn morning back that... It meant somethin' to me. But did it mean anythin' at all to you?"  
"It did," Heero said.  
"So then you do..."  
Heero nodded. "I do." He laced his fingers with Duo's. "I feel the same way you do."  
"You...you love me?"  
"I do," Heero repeated. "I never stopped."

Duo grinned, leaning in close. "Can I?"  
Heero nodded.  
Duo cupped Heero's cheek before kissing him.  
"I love you," Duo murmured, as he encircled his arms around Heero's neck.  
"I know," Heero answered, before kissing Duo, his arms pulling him closer.


	6. Clean House

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Quatre has to decide what managers stay and what ones are too grossly incompetent to remain employed at Winnermart. There is something hidden in the last stall of the men's room that shouldn't be there, but is and Zechs is Not Pleased. Duo and Quatre decide that they need to talk to Heero about a topic that won't be easy to discuss, but they need to because they both love him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For all of the last names (and a couple of the first names) I used a random name generator because I'm not terribly creative with names for throwaways. So Bruce's name is what it is only because that is what the name generator gave me and I found it funny.

_October 4th, AC 205_  
_4:30am_

Today, Quatre was at the store before any members of management, save for the lone support manager who was in charge of the overnights—Quatre had had to call him in on his way home yesterday when the overnight assistant manager called out. He sat in the admin office, the desk covered in different file folders as he looked through each one. They were employee files Quatre had sneaked from the HR office, where he didn't have much privacy since the overnight crew loved to file in there on their breaks and hold conversation. Loudly. At least in here, no one bothered him. He sifted through the different files, looking for patterns of behaviour, trying to piece together some kind of timeline, any kind of reason why these managers were or weren't suited for their jobs.

Since everything tended to snowball down, Quatre thought it would make sense to start at the very top and then work his way down, starting with the managers whose job performance was lackluster. On top of the pile was a folder labeled Daniels, Albert F. The file folder was rather hefty in his hands. Quatre frowned when the first page staring up at him was the latest complaint, dated just a week ago. Rifling through the papers, it appeared the first complaint was three pages long, and many more followed around the same length.

_Albert Daniels has an awful lot of complaints about him..._ Most of them were from employees, stating he was verbally abusive, gave time frames for assignments that were impossible to complete, nitpicked every little thing, and used fear and intimidation as a tactic to get everyone to listen to him. In fact the pages listing and summarising all of the complaints he had received was the longest portion of his employee file, taking up thirty sheets of paper, not counting the fact that they were also duplexed.

The number one complaint from managers was that whenever something wrong happened, or something important was going on, he was often strangely absent. Quatre took notes so he could bring these points up during the meeting since the files themselves were considered 'privileged information'. Closer examination revealed a rather faded neon yellow mark over the line _never present when the store is in crisis, seems to always be absent right after an incident occurs, especially if ZMS Marta is involved._

_I wonder what Marta has to do with this_ , Quatre thought, and made a note to look into that further. A post it note tucked into the folder had a list of managers who had quit or transferred due to Albert's misbehaviour. A tally stated he was at ten. Quatre blinked and brought the sticky note closer to his face.  
_Did he really cause ten different managers to transfer or quit?_ Quatre sucked in a breath at the reasons listed for them leaving, which all amounted to 'I'm tired of being harassed by my store manager.' Some of them were more politely worded than others, but that was the jist of it.

Quatre closed the folder and placed it at the corner of the desk. He gave the same thorough attention to the co-manager's file, a woman by the name of Jennifer Parr, who seemed to be the complete opposite of Albert. _Perhaps she should become the store manager, I think she would be better suited for it than he is. Her qualifications are even better_. Quatre wondered why, after months of her applying, she hadn't gotten the promotion.  
_I may need to meet with Market to figure out the reason for that._ Her folder joined Albert's in the corner.

_Let's see about the three remaining assistant managers..._  
Awn'Drew Nettlebed, assistant manager over the front end. Often showed up late for his shifts, if he showed up at all. Quatre looked at his attendance records and nearly spilled tea all over them.  
_22 absences in one month?! How is he here still?_ Kate really _was_ the only one running the front end, she had absolutely no managerial support. And yet presumably this manager was getting paid since they were salaried.  
_How could anyone in good conscience still consider themselves employed here when they end up missing most of their shifts?_ Behaviour like that was a giant pet peeve of his.

Geoff Cullingford resided over Lawn and Garden as well as Hardlines; Lawn and Garden's sales were astronomical, with productivity rates through the roof despite its lack of associates; Hardware and Sporting Goods, on the other hand, were doing abysmally.  
_From what I've heard from various associates, he cracks a mean whip in Lawn and Garden and spends all of his time overseeing what's going on there instead of leaving it to his department managers. Does he not trust them? Or has he forgotten he has other departments?_

The last folder belonged to a Bruce Cloudwalker. Quatre smiled at the name as he flipped the file open.  
_I wonder if he and Luke Skywalker are related..._  
He heard the door unlock and three people walked in, one of whom was the overnight support manager, the lone keyholder in the store at the moment. He heard one of them cackle and froze mid page turn. He knew that cackle anywhere.  
_Laura?_  
Sure enough, a rather rotund woman with short, dark hair went through the door to the cash office, iPad in hand, as someone around his own height followed after her, their face solemn.

_That poor person_. Quatre was only _too_ familiar with Laura. Laura Lilian Bowjangles was a woman in her forties who was currently seeing a man named Raul Chavarez, a man who was married to his older sister Jenna. Laura was only one of the many "bits on the side" (Raul's words, not Quatre's), and the only one he _didn't_ have any children with. Laura was just one of the many skeletons lurking in the Winner Secret Crypt because whatever deities existed knew that a closet wasn't large enough to fit them all in. If a tabloid were to find out even a _sliver_ of what lay inside the Secret Crypt, it would cause enough scandal to potentially ruin the Winner name unless someone used money to have it swept under the rug.

And here was Laura with her air of importance. He could hear her, faintly, yelling about something. He winced. That was all he had ever heard her do, yell. It was weird, seeing her in the Winnermart uniform—he was used to the much 'swankier' attire Raul insisted she wear. He went back to the files, only managing to get through a couple more pages before he heard a loud noise from the cash office. He took a deep breath as he attempted to steady his heart rate and looked at the door.

_I may have to ask what goes on in there at this rate._

He took a few more notes on each manager before gathering everything up and heading back to HR. He needed to place these files back where they belonged and then outline what he wanted to discuss with each level of management at the meeting.  
_From what I've seen just as a normal hourly associate... Things are not good. The reports show that things are going on behind the scenes that are compounding the issue and raising tensions._

There were people coming in today who were going to leave without jobs.

* * *

Heero woke up and, for a moment, completely forgot where he was or why his alarm sounded different—he didn't remember changing it to some classic rock song, but then again he couldn't remember anything from last night, nothing concrete. He could still taste the Jack Daniels from last night, could remember someone telling him they'd never seen someone chug an entire bottle of off brand whiskey in one go... _Was that before or after the Jack?_ Someone stirred in his arms and the alarm was silenced. Heero heard a phone drop onto some kind of nearby surface and when they shifted, Heero got a whiff of cologne and shampoo.

The only person who still wore this particular cologne was Duo.  
"Mornin'." Duo gave him a peck on the mouth. "Sleep well?"  
Heero squinted in the darkness. "Yeah... Guess I did."  
"We're back at my place," Duo said, as if sensing Heero's confusion. "You got pretty hammered so I took you back here. Don't know where you live so...hope you don't mind." He sat up and stretched; Heero could hear Duo's shoulders and back crack before he got up and went about gathering clothes. Heero sat up, ran a hand through his hair before he saw a dark object coming at him. Despite some residual effects from the alcohol he had had last night, his reflexes were still in tact and he caught the denim fabric of his jeans with a deft hand.

"I can lend you some work pants since I don't think Kate'll 'ppreciate you, y'know, showin' up in ratty jeans. But I figured you got your shit in there, wallet, whatever. Can do laundry later."  
Duo turned the light on and rummaged through his closet, pulling out a pair of black jeans and a white button down shirt.  
"These should fit, or at least be a little big on you." He threw them on the bed.  
"Is that my old Preventers shirt?"  
Duo turned around, his own pants in hand. Duo looked down at the shirt he had chosen to sleep in, an olive drab green t-shirt that was baggy as hell on him and too long for his frame. On the front was the Preventers logo; on the back was a last name that wasn't his.  
"Uh... Yeah. Yeah it is." Duo shrugged. "Ya want it back?"  
Heero shook his head before pulling off the shirt he had fallen asleep in and replacing it with the button down. He could feel Duo's eyes on him.

"You had quite a bit last night."  
Heero left the comfort of the bed to put on the pants Duo loaned him. They were a little snug in the thigh area, but Duo did always favour skinny jeans and the like and they were the only type he had ever seen Duo buy.  
"Did I?"  
Duo rummaged through his sock drawer to try and find some socks.  
"You drank three whole bottles of booze in like an hour." He turned, socks in hand. "No one drinks like that without a trip to the hospital unless they're—"  
"I don't have a problem." Heero transferred his personal effects to his clean pants. He was convinced if he said it enough, he could maybe believe it. He headed for the bathroom.

"Ain't sayin' ya do," Duo said, following Heero. "But I've seen you drink before." Duo leaned against the door jamb. "This is different."  
"Could you blame me?" Heero asked as he stared at the mirror, trying to tame his hair with just his fingers.  
"No." Duo crossed his arms. "But take it from me, 'Ro. It ain't worth it, and as someone who loves you, I wouldn't want you killing yourself like that."  
Duo disappeared from the doorway and closed the door behind him, likely so Heero could go about his business in private. He could hear the coffee maker doing its thing through the door a short while later.  
_I wouldn't want you killing yourself like that._  
Heero felt sick, something he hadn't felt in a long time.  
_There's no point in keeping this charade up_ , Heero thought. It was one thing to hurt himself, it was another when others started hurting because of it. Maybe that fact was why he was so afraid of getting involved with someone else, maybe that was why Duo had left him the first time—  
"Coffee's ready!"

Heero didn't have a toothbrush and wasn't too keen on using Duo's, so he swished around some mouthwash and spat that out in the sink before leaving the bathroom.  
"Still take it with cream and sugar?" Duo asked when Heero entered the small kitchenette.  
Heero nodded. He watched Duo dump a packet of Sweet 'n' Low in the dark liquid and add two teaspoons of Bailey's non-alcoholic creamer in before stirring it.  
"I'm surprised you remember."  
Duo shrugged. "It's always the stupid shit, the little things." He handed Heero the mug. "How you take your coffee, what drawer you always kept your stuff in, what aftershave you always liked me using. Birthdays. Anniversaries. What size shoe you buy. Things like that."

Duo set his mug down on the counter, done with his morning coffee before it had a chance to cool down some.  
"Lemme hit up the bathroom real quick. We got like ten minutes yeah?"  
"Fifteen."  
"Even better." He grinned. "Just lemme brush my teeth, 'kay?"  
Heero nodded. "You can brush whatever you want, it's your apartment."  
Duo mock pouted. "Don't get sassy with me. I'll be out in ten."

Heero heard the bathroom door close shortly after Duo disappeared and felt a sense of awkwardness envelop him. He was in Duo's apartment which, while not as nice as the one they shared was, wasn't shabby looking either. Heero took a sip of his coffee and wrinkled his nose from how off it tasted.  
_That's how I take my coffee, isn't it?_ Heero stumped himself for a moment, wondering if that _was_ how he took his coffee. _Maybe there isn't enough cream in it._

Heero decided to have a look through Duo's fridge in search of more creamer, maybe it had expired or was some weird and exotic flavour, when he spotted a half full bottle of Jameson's. There was a ribbon around it, clearly it was gifted to him.  
_One packet of sugar, a splash of cream, and a shot of whiskey to mix it together._ Memories of breakfast in different pubs had him temporarily zone out on the bottle. The last time he had breakfast at his usual haunt was a week before he took the Winnermart job. Shortly after that he would wake up and forgo the coffee in favour of vodka and, still tasting it, would end up having a coffee at work before the start of his shift.

_You can drink your coffee without it_.  
He uncapped it.  
_But it tastes so weird without it._  
He poured a little less than half a shot into his coffee, not enough to be noticeable, but enough for him to taste it.  
_A little bit won't hurt, will it?_  
He put the whiskey back where he found it and took a tentative sip.  
_Still tastes weird, but at least now it's drinkable_.

That sick feeling came back when he came to a realisation.  
_People don't need alcohol in their coffee to get through their day._ After all he didn't see Duo pouring any in or offering him any when he made it. That was something he'd only seen in bars whose patrons stayed until closing time—sometimes later. Patrons who many times were self-proclaimed 'alcos'.

Heero had drained his mug of coffee by the time Duo came back, hair freshly brushed and braided, smelling of mint toothpaste and aftershave. Heero was leaning against the counter, arms folded over his chest. Duo came over, put the empty mugs in the sink.  
"Can I?"  
Heero hesitated. Would Duo taste the whiskey on his tongue? Finally, he nodded, unfolding his arms so Duo could be flush against him. Duo smiled before he kissed him, slow and sweet, humming in satisfaction.  
"We good?" Duo asked, when he broke the kiss.  
"With five minutes to spare."  
Duo grinned. "See? I can be on time when I wanna." He nosed Heero's cheek before kissing Heero again when he turned his head.  
"We'll end up late if we..." Another kiss. Heero's arms reached for Duo's shoulders.

"You wanna have a quickie before work?"  
Heero shook his head. _I'm not sober._  
Duo kissed him again before pulling away.  
"Let me drive then."

It took Heero a minute to realise he had voiced his thought out loud. It felt like an admission of guilt. In a way, Heero knew it was.

* * *

"You may not wanna talk to any assistant manager today."  
Kate's hushed tone to them when they clocked in implied everything they needed to know.  
"Someone get fired?" Duo asked.  
"More like getting fired," Rochelle said. "Corporate was here bright and early and they've been in and out of meetings since 6:30 this morning. Market and District are here too."  
Heero and Duo shared looks.  
"They told us to just go about our jobs like nothing was happening, but with all of upper management tied up, and corporate here... This doesn't look good."  
"So what happens if everyone's occupado?" Duo asked.  
An older gentleman with bright ginger hair smiled. "That's why they brought in other managers from nearby to help out."  
Rochelle flushed.  
"Name's Tim," he said, shaking each other their hands. "Need anything, just call."

The first five minutes of their morning went by without anything eventful happening. Cashiers checked out customers, CSMs Ray and Erica were watching the lines and doing their usual duties, and there weren't all that many customers who needed exchanges or returns, so customer service was quiet.  
"This is bullshit!"  
Though the store wasn't all that busy this early in the morning, the few customers who were doing their shopping stopped at the rather loud exclamation. Assistant Manager Drew came blazing down the main aisle, his face twisted into a rather mean looking snarl as he pushed a stocker filling the ice bag cooler into the actual freezer. A very tall, imposing man with long blond hair ran after him, as was a much smaller woman who was in borderline hysterics about her 'darling Drewy'.  
"Looks like AP is finally doing something useful," Rochelle mused as Kate came around the counter, two sets of keys in hand.

"Here are your keys, Duo." Kate handed a large keyring over to him, which was attached to a green coloured coil to carry them around on his wrist. "You still need to do the CBLs and what not, but I would like Ray to give you some training first."  
"Why am I just getting keys now?"  
"Because everyone was too stunned at Drew running out to stop me from getting in the lock box," Kate answered. "Before that they wouldn't even answer the doorbell."  
Duo nodded. "Where's Ray?"  
"He's over by the podium. Just pay attention to the AD Office door in case another manager comes out and loses his shit." She looked to the remaining service desk associates. "If anyone comes in and asks for a manager, you can direct them to Tim, Adam, or Dessirree."

Heero signed into a register after it logged him out yet again due to inactivity. "Anything else we need to know?"  
"Quatre said to not worry."  
"That isn't very reassuring."  
"No, no it's not," Kate agreed. "Most likely we're gonna be getting at least a new store manager and, since Drew's running around like a tweeked and headless chicken, at least one new ASM."  
"We've had like three or four store managers already," Rochelle chimed in. "We can handle the transition." She gestured to the board hanging from the ceiling behind them. There was a space under OUR STORE MANAGER IS where it had been covered many times. Some of the letters from the previous store manager were still somewhat visible.  
"That hasn't been filled in for a month or so, because they don't tend to last."

The automatic sliding doors were forced open by Drew as he continued screaming.  
"No! Fuck you pigs, fuck your pig fucking mothers, fuck this pig fuck of a place!"  
"In my office. _Now_."  
Rochelle shivered. "Agent Merquise scares me when he gets all deep voiced and throaty like that."  
A little old lady barely tall enough to see over the counter approached with a cloth bag full of items. Drew came up behind her.  
"Don't fucking even bother with this place! Just sell all this shit on eBay!"  
The old woman looked at him. "What's this about butter on my face?"

Rochelle winced when Zechs dragged the irate and out of control assistant manager into the AP office on the other side of the partition separating that area from the bathrooms.  
"Is there butter on my face?" the old woman asked.  
"No, ma'am," Rochelle answered, a smile on her face as she gingerly took the bag of returns from her. "What's the reason for your return?"

Heero leaned back against the counter just as their 10:30 coverage showed up thirteen minutes late. If one went back by the reshops bins, one could hear a string of expletives filter through the AP office door.  
"Today's gonna be interesting," Heero said.  
"Why's that?" Chris asked, putting on his work issue jacket.  
"Because Corporate is probably firing all of upper management and Drew's cackling like a demented chicken in the AP office."  
Chris nodded as he began cleaning up the back counter of the old woman's clothing returns. He had just dumped them into the apparel gobacks bin when another shout caused another wave of silence in the store.

"I will _not_ have a lowly ZMS replace me!"  
"I'm getting the fuck out of here," said a customer, as he sped from the bathrooms. "Whole place is going cray as fuck. Did you know the last stall in the men's room is a portable meth lab?"  
"Maybe I should've called out today," Chris said.  
"Maybe we all should've," Heero added, before dialing AP's phone extension.  
"Asset Protection." Heero could barely hear Zechs over Drew's yelling.  
"Zechs."  
"Heero?"  
"A customer just came up to service and said there is a portable meth lab in the last stall of the front men's room."  
There was a click as Zechs hung up, a few seconds before he came out of the AP office and went into the men's room.

* * *

Duo had had maybe five minutes of hands-on training before he was accosted to the back room for the computer training courses. The head of HR, an older woman named Dottie, told him he couldn't go for more practical training until his CBLs were all up to date. Judging from the chatter on the radio he was given, that was probably for the best, as Drew was causing a scene that required Preventers to take a trip down, and the store manager was arguing with Quatre, something about goats and what he liked to do with them? Duo didn't want to know what _that_ was all about.  
_Better Kat than me_ , Duo thought, as he clicked on yet another option for some Safety Training Module (1 of 10 to complete). _If it were me, that guy'd be thrown out of the store right after the first outburst_.

"Are you busy, Dottie?"  
A woman with long brown hair kept ramrod straight most likely due to a straightener poked her head in. She was wearing a highly tailored suit in a rich navy blue, so Duo figured she had to be somewhat important and higher up on the hierarchy. Then again, Quatre wasn't wearing a suit, and he was the CEO and President of Winnermart Inc.  
"Not any more than usual, Jenn," she said with a smile. She couldn't be new if Dottie seemed familiar with her, so she was just new to him. "What do you need?"

She handed Dottie a series of file folders. "When you have the time, I need a few reqs opened and interviews scheduled. Also anything in need of the store manager's attention, please forward to me specifically or just put 'co-manager' on it. Phone calls can be directed to me as well. Market is unsure of where the next store manager will be chosen from at this point in time, so it may be a while before we have one, but if anyone asks, you—"  
"Don't know anything," Dottie finished. "Winnermart thrives on how little their employees are supposed to know." She flipped through the series of folders. "What are these for?"  
"Those are the assistant manager candidates and one transfer request. I need to look into who will be an outside candidate as per our hiring policy, but that will take some time."  
Dottie nodded as she stopped at one of the folders. "Isn't he relatively new to Winnermart?"  
"He comes recommended from Kate, plus according to his file, he's been in leadership roles elsewhere, and has excelled in them. He can always take the test and we can see what he scores if the others aren't as convinced."

Duo sighed as he finished one CBL and went on to the next: Safety (2 of 10).  
_This is gonna take forever._

* * *

Heero, Rochelle, and Chris were at the rather dead and quiet service desk, all standing around doing absolutely nothing. Well, Rochelle was standing around doing nothing. Chris was using the signposts hanging from the ceiling as targets, rubberbands his weapon of choice. Heero was busy cleaning everything, because he had nothing better to do and he couldn't just stand around doing nothing. They couldn't really have customers since the Preventers agents occupying the area made it difficult for anyone to queue.

"Can I make a return here?"  
"I'm sorry, ma'am," Chris said. "Customer service is closed due to an ongoing investigation in this area of the store, but you can come back another day—"  
"Then why the hell are you just standing around looking stupid?! There are no signs anywhere stating you're closed!"  
Chris looked at the signs hanging from each register and posted at each of their counters stating customer service was closed and that they were sorry for the inconvenience.  
"The store is open! Serve me!"  
"You are interfering with a crime scene," Heero said. "Leave."  
The woman scoffed, but she did comply once she heard 'crime scene'.

"There's a chess set in the Toys bin," Rochelle remarked. "I hear mudwalkers can't play a good game of chess to save their lives."  
"'Mudwalkers'?" Chris dinged a rubberband off one of the ceiling light fixtures, where it ended up melting from the heat of the bulb.  
"Dirtsiders." She removed the chess set from the bin and opened it, placing it on the back counter. "You know. People from Earth."  
"Isn't that kind of derogatory?"  
Rochelle sighed. " _Everything_ can be derogatory if you think about it. I've heard a lot of different things about Earthlings on Tumblr. Most of it's terrible. Besides, my father said that we would've been better off without Earth anyway, it's the source of all evil." She carefully set up each chess piece.

Heero set his broom aside.  
"It's that attitude that was responsible in part for two wars."  
"Are you saying my father is wrong? What do we get from Earth that we can't get from space outside of weapons?"  
"Rochelle—"  
"Butt out, Chris. Heero thinks he knows everything, so let's hear it."  
Heero looked at the packaging for the chess set. "This says it's made of real wood." He looked at her. "So where did they get the wood from?"  
"From trees." She gestured towards the doors. "Which _we_ have!"  
"And where did we get the first seeds for those trees from?"

Rochelle wasn't able to answer him.  
"Colonial schools need to educate students more about the origins of the colonies, I think."  
"I don't think there's anything wrong with the education system!"  
"Rochelle, stop while you're ahe—"  
"Shut _up_ , Chris." She crossed her arms. "In school, I learned the majority of war casualties were dirtsiders anyway, and that the Gundam pilots were the ones responsible for the majority of them, which were all Alliance anyway, and they don't count as people."  
_Is that really what it says in history textbooks here?_

Heero gave her a look. "I think that's grossly inaccurate."  
"What do you know, huh?"  
"You done, Rochelle?" It was Ray. "Or do you have anything else offensive to say today to two war veterans who've been there, done that, lived to tell the tale only for it to be twisted around into something villainous or something heroic depending on who wrote the book?"  
She shook her head, eyes on the floor.  
"If Preventers heard you, they'd be asking you questions, thinking you were gonna start some kind of plot against Earth." He looked at her, arms crossed. "Do I need to drag Zechs out of his office and have him ask some questions?"  
Again, Rochelle shook her head.  
"Go on lunch."

Rochelle punched out on the computer and left the service desk counter without another word.  
"My brothers-in-arms did not die for viewpoints like hers, and I know the same holds true for those on your side."  
The 11:30am service desk associate showed up shortly after Rochelle left, a girl with multicoloured hair pulled up into a bun and unnaturally blue eyes whose name badge declared her name as Freijah.  
"I saw Kate on my way up here," she said, dodging a misfired rubberband from Chris. "She wants to see Heero back in Personnel."  
"Now?"  
Freijah shrugged. "I guess so. She said it's kinda important, and there's two people here, so we'll be fine."  
"We need anything, we'll just page for you or get Ray, no biggee."

_Please no more surprises_ , Heero thought, as he left service desk right as the lunch rush flooded on in.

* * *

Before Heero entered the Personnel/HR office, he peeked through the window on the door and saw Kate, Quatre, and a young looking woman sitting at the table where most of the time new hire orientations were being held.  
_I'm being fired, aren't I?_  
He opened the door, thankful that it didn't creak, and stepped on through. It thumped loudly when it shut, despite him gingerly closing it, alerting everyone to his presence immediately.

"Please, sit." The woman gestured to a chair between Quatre and Kate. He took it. Under the table, Quatre placed his hand on top of Heero's and squeezed, gentle reassurance in the small gesture.  
"Don't worry," she said, a soft smile on her face. "You're not in any trouble. My name is Anjelica and I'm your Market HR Manager. We have something important we would like to discuss with you."

Kate turned to him. "Heero, we have heard some disturbing things about ZMS Marta and since you worked with her, we felt it necessary to ask about her."  
"I only worked with her briefly," Heero said. "I won't be much help."  
"There have been reports of her acting in a harassing manner towards her coworkers, I just wanted to ask you if you've—"  
"No," Heero answered. "She hasn't done anything to me."  
Quatre's brow furrowed. "That's not what we've seen. Security footage shows you and her—"  
"It was a misunderstanding," Heero interrupted. "Nothing more, nothing less."

He saw Kate and Quatre share a look.  
"I see. Matters such as this that are brought to our attention must be thoroughly investigated before we can reach an outcome," Anjelica said. "Are you absolutely certain you have nothing you wish to say?"  
Heero nodded. He could tell Quatre wasn't happy with that answer.  
"I'm not protecting her or anything. I don't really know her, and I have nothing to say about her."  
"She has told us that you and her were physical, and that she ended up being hurt in the alter—"  
"As I said, it was a misunderstanding."  
Anjelica nodded. "Very well. We will log your response in our reports. Thank you for your help, Heero."

As soon as Heero left the room, Quatre said, "He's hiding something. I can tell."  
"How?" Kate asked.  
"Heero doesn't interrupt someone or prevent them from finishing their sentences unless he's hiding something he doesn't want to talk about."  
Anjelica sighed. "With all of these reports against her, I could still dismiss her from Winnermart."  
"And you said a few want to file charges against her," Kate said.  
"That is correct. Unfortunately they don't want to face her in court due to embarrassment and because of Marta's ties to the community, they are intimidated."

They sat in silence, each one contemplative over what to do with the situation.  
"Is there anyone who could talk to him about what happened? I thought that maybe you being in the room with him would help..." Kate sighed.  
"We can't push," Anjelica said. "As I said, we have sufficient evidence to dismiss her."  
"There might be someone who could ask him about it," Quatre said.  
"If that doesn't work, then we must drop it and proceed," Anjelica said.

* * *

"I have a favour to ask you," Quatre said. It was the end of the day and Duo was getting ready to leave for the day. Currently Duo was outside, cigarette in his mouth, sat on one of the benches in the smoking area, waiting for Heero since he was his ride. Quatre was standing right at the 'entrance' to it.  
"Yeah?" He inhaled deeply, the end of his cigarette glowing blue. Quatre hadn't realised at first that it was an electronic cigarette, they were nearly identical to the 'real' thing.  
"Can you please talk to Heero?" Quatre sat down now.  
"Already plan on it," Duo said, as he leaned back on the bench, one arm resting on the back of it.  
Quatre nodded, smiling. "I see we're on the same page then."

Duo sighed, drummed his fingers on his knee.  
"He's got a problem, Kat. And I think he's comin' round to the fact that he's got a problem, but still. Somethin's gotta be done before he goes and does somethin' stupid."  
Quatre's brow furrowed. "What are you talking about? Is this something with Marta?"  
Duo blinked. "Marta? What's she got to do with Heero drinkin'?"  
Quatre was taken aback. "Heero has a drinking problem?"  
"Christ," Duo muttered, leaning forward now, elbows resting on his lap. "What'd Marta do?"  
"According to Heero, she did nothing, but we have footage that shows they had an altercation of some kind."  
"He didn't say nothin'?"  
Quatre shook his head, gaze dropping to his clasped hands. "He said that nothing happened and that we were misunderstanding what the video showed. But I think there's more to it than that."  
"Kat." Duo took another puff from his cigarette. "Heero ain't gonna say nothin' until he's ready to. One thing I learned quick was he don't give up nothin' unless he wants to."  
"I was hoping if you talked to him..."  
"If he says that nothin' bad happened, then I'd take his word for it."  
_This didn't pan out as expected. Maybe Duo is right._

"Heero has a drinking problem..."  
"I ain't surprised, but I didn't think it'd be this bad." Duo rubbed at his eyes with the heels of his palms. "He used to drink socially, you know, couple drinks here and there at a bar with me and Trowa. We'd have a beer while watchin' the game 'cause good luck findin' any shows on the TV that weren't sports. But then last night he chugged three bottles of cheap shit and I tasted Jameson on his breath this mornin'..." Duo hung his head. "Before we reunited we used to go bar hoppin'. Stupid shit. He'd get plastered, I'd get a nice buzz on 'cause I got my limits, and then we'd fuck and he'd wake up not rememberin' shit all. And I thought before last night that maybe Heero was better, that my nose was wrong..."

Quatre didn't know what to say.  
"He needs help, Kat. But I don't know what to say or how to say it."  
"Just tell him that," Quatre answered. "Tell him that he needs to get better."  
"I lost him once," Duo said quietly. "I won't let some son of a bitch thing like alcohol addiction steal him away from me." He paused before chuckling a bit.  
"Duo?"  
"When we were nineteen—well he was nineteen, I was still eighteen... It was summer and we ended up Earth side for some Preventers thing." Duo smiled at the memory. "And he said to me, 'I want to marry you. Here. When you're 21.'" He rubbed at his eyes.

Quatre wrapped an arm around Duo's shoulders.  
"You love him."  
"I love him and I'm fucking petrified that I'm gonna lose him, Kat." He leaned into Quatre. "Please... I know I've asked for a lot of favours these past few years and you've done so much—too much—for me. But...please help me get Heero help."  
Quatre rubbed his back. "Of course I'll help you. I want to see him better too."  
"Maybe hearin' it from two people who love him will make him listen."

Quatre hoped so.

"Tomorrow's his day off. I work, but I got a short shift, only workin' 6:30am to 10:30..."  
"I can leave here around noon. Where will we meet?"  
"Meet for what?"  
Quatre turned around so fast he felt his spine crack. Duo's head shot up.  
"Wanna hang out tomorrow after I get off work? Or... Maybe I can spend the night with you? Or you with me?"  
Heero shrugged. "Your place is fine. We need to stop at mine so I can get my go bag."  
"'S fine." Duo smiled. "You ready?"  
Heero nodded.  
"I'll text you later, 'kay, Kat?"  
"Certainly." Quatre nodded.

_I hope this works out... For both of them._


	7. This Time Around

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Instead of drinking, Heero decides to indulge in more carnal urges at Duo's place. It's much more acceptable than drinking your woes away, or at least that's what Heero thinks.

_October 4th, AC 205_  
_Early evening_

Heero had a craving. It was a craving he was afraid of indulging in, especially after last night. Being afraid of them didn't make cravings disappear, and Heero knew that. All he could think about was the lone bottle of liquor in Duo's fridge, how lonely it had to feel, and how he could change all of that by giving it some company. But Duo was in his arms, and it felt nice. Duo was warm, and tangible, more tangible than the pillow he used to cuddle every night—he seemed to stay with Duo more and more, and Duo seemed to want him to stay.

He buried his face in Duo's hair. Maybe the scent of pomegranate and melon scented shampoo would distract him enough. He moved Duo's braid, draped it over his shoulder before placing soft kisses along the nape of his neck, felt Duo shiver when he kissed the tattoo on his shoulder.  
"Heero..."  
Duo turned around and Heero kissed him, hard, breathless, slipped him some tongue as he pushed Duo into the couch cushions, ended up kneeling in between his legs. His craving for alcohol fueled something else, something Heero could actually have and no one could judge him for _this_ craving, or at least that was his thought process as he tore Duo's shirt off and threw it on the floor.

"You wanna?"  
Heero looked deep into Duo's eyes; Duo shivered.  
"Let me fuck you."  
Duo's blue eyes darkened, his fingers grasping the hem of the shirt Heero had borrowed from him earlier, pulling it off, revealing an undershirt instead of bare, inked skin.  
"You gotta make this hard for me, huh?" Duo grinned as he kissed Heero, sitting up on the couch now, moving Heero with him. "Let's not do this here."

Duo led Heero to the bedroom without knocking into too many walls, leaving a trail of clothes in their wake and an occasional detour to kiss and touch against a wall, or a closet door, or a doorway. Duo pushed Heero onto the bed and followed right after, legs straddling Heero's lap, mouth against Heero's, skin against skin. Duo couldn't remember the last time he'd seen Heero naked but the image before him was so much better than the image from years ago. He pressed a kiss to the pulse point on Heero's neck before pulling away enough to talk.

"Heero... Heero you sure? We don't gotta—"  
"I know we don't have to." He shifted so he could look in Duo's eyes again. "I want to."  
"You positive?"  
Heero grabbed Duo's hips, gave him a look filled with unbridled desire before he whispered, "Shut up and ride me."  
Duo didn't need to be told twice. He barely had time to position Heero between his legs before Heero thrust up and inside him, eliciting a cry from Duo, fingers in Heero's hair. Heero hissed at sensations he hadn't felt in a long time, at least with Duo.

"Oh fuck, 'Ro..."  
Heero let Duo set the rhythm and the pace as he kissed him, slow and sensual to match how Duo moved his hips. Duo moaned, broke the kiss and tilted his head to bare his neck.  
"Mark me." It came out breathlessly, Duo's hips making figure eights as he made sure he had every last inch of Heero inside him. He kissed the juncture of Duo's neck before tracing it with his tongue. Nipping the skin with his teeth caused Duo to let out a little breathy moan.  
"Don't tease me," Duo breathed, hips stilling. " _Bite_ me."

Duo ended up on his back, legs wrapped around Heero's waist as Heero nipped at his collarbone.  
"Fucking—" Duo ground his hips hard into Heero's.  
Heero bit Duo hard enough to bruise and worried the skin with his teeth. In response Duo moaned a drawn out "yes!" in Heero's ear and tugged at his hair as Heero left mark after mark along his collarbone and shoulder, his hips punctuating each mark with a thrust.  
"Heero..."  
Heero pinned Duo's wrists above his head and kissed him before thrusting hard and fast.  
" _Yes_."

Heero knew Duo loved it when he let go, when he lost all control and just focused on them and the noises coming out of Duo's mouth. But after a few years of learning to _not_ let go, to continually pull back from everyone and everything, Heero found himself unable to.

It hurt, but he couldn't open up to Duo again like that. Not yet.

* * *

The last remnants of the day cycle filtered through the curtains on Duo's bedroom window. Heero looked at the clock on Duo's nightstand—they'd been out for a little over two hours. He rubbed his face as he sat up and Duo stirring as well.  
"Don't even think of leaving."  
Heero stilled for a moment.  
"I wasn't going to."  
"Good." Duo leaned over Heero to access the nightstand drawer, pulling out a battered pack of cigarettes.

"You still smoke?"  
Heero nodded. Duo offered him a cigarette before taking one himself.  
"You're allowed to smoke in the apartment?" Heero asked, lighting it with the disposable lighter Duo had stashed with the cigarettes. Duo shrugged before taking a light off of Heero's.  
"In a place like this, landlord don't give a shit." He placed an old coffee can in between them on the bed to serve as a makeshift ashtray.

"Kat's coming over tomorrow. You know. Lunch and whatever since you're off and I got a shortie and Kat's leaving early."  
"It's not just lunch," Heero said through his cigarette, arms folded over his chest.  
"Wha—"  
"You're planning an intervention, aren't you?"  
Duo nearly swallowed his cigarette.  
"How—"  
"I heard you and Quatre talking." He looked at Duo from the corner of his eye. "In the future, have conversations like that somewhere more private."  
_Thwarted by the goddamn outdoor acoustics._ "Look, 'Ro," Duo put his hands up, "we're just doing this for—"  
Heero shook his head. "I'm not mad." He watched the ash on the end of his cigarette fall onto his chest.  
Duo lowered his hands. "You ain't?"  
Heero took a long drag, focused on the smoke filling his mouth and lungs before exhaling it.  
"Being with you again, being with Quatre..." He didn't look at Duo. "I can't explain it. It's different from alcohol. There was something missing so I used that to try and fill the space. It worked for a while, but now it's not doing shit except make me feel empty."  
Duo blinked. "And me and Kat do what?"  
Heero half shrugged. "Relationships tend to be more fulfilling than something with empty calories."

Duo reached across the mattress for Heero's hand before hesitating and instead moved a little closer.  
"It ain't easy." Duo said. "I nearly ended up down that road too."  
"What stopped you?"  
"Smoking." Duo tossed his nearly finished cigarette into the makeshift ashtray, but not before lighting another. "I used to smoke like two packs a day and last month I went to the doc and he couldn't believe I smoked at all 'cause my lungs look great." He laughed a little. "What a fuckin' miracle. Not even smoking'll kill me."  
"Doctor said that about my liver as well. Couldn't believe I drank at all."  
Duo looked at Heero before laughing a little.  
"What a pair we make, huh? Unable to die, unable to live."  
They sat there in silence for a while, listened to the wind whistle through the trees outside Duo's bedroom window or the occasional bird chirping.

"Do you still blame yourself for everything?"  
"For what?"  
"For what happened with us."  
"Not as much as I used to," Duo confessed. "For a while after I called myself a huge asshole for letting someone like you go. But we were young and stupid. It's fine." Duo leaned against Heero, resting his head on Heero's shoulder. "What about you?"  
"I still do on those nights when my brain won't shut up and feels the need to remind me of every mistake I've ever made."  
Heero felt Duo tense against him.  
"How often was that?"  
"Every night. Then I started drinking and it shut that voice up."  
"You ain't gonna do that no more, okay? We're gonna find a better solution than 'drink into a stupour'."

Heero took an extra long drag on his cigarette.  
"I promise, okay? I wouldn't lie to you."  
"I know." Heero finished his cigarette and tossed it before resting his cheek on Duo's hair. "If anything I'm the liar."  
"No you ain't," Duo said matter-of-factly. "If you lied you would've washed your hands of me, written me off, and moved on with someone else. Probably be married with like three kids by now. You came back, Heero. You're here in my bed with me. I won't make you say it, but the fact is _you're still in love with me_. And considering you said you'd never stop loving me ever—"

Heero kissed Duo.  
"I get the point."  
Duo grinned. "Maybe it's too early for this but... I love you, Heero. And that's why I want to help you get better. I'm a stubborn bastard and I ain't gonna lose you. Not again."  
"You won't," Heero answered. "I promise."  
"You break that promise and I swear, I will never forgive you."  
"I have no intentions of breaking it."

Duo's phone went off as he scrambled to find where his pants even were. Once he had located them out in the hallway by the wall where he had nearly jumped Heero, he answered it. While Duo was preoccupied, Heero decided to gather up his own clothes, and when he found his pants by Duo's dresser, idle curiosity led him to pull on the third drawer.

It was empty.

Heero expected as much.

_The rest of the dresser is overstuffed, but he refuses to use this drawer_. In Duo's mind, this drawer was separate from the rest of the dresser. Heero didn't have much in the way of clothing back when they were first dating, so for the most part it was just all shoved in the closet save for some t-shirts and a few odds and ends. To save on space, Duo had just designated a drawer that was just for Heero.

_This isn't even the same dresser._

Duo stomped back into the bedroom, phone clenched in his hand.  
"What's up?"  
"Oh nothing," Duo said through grit teeth. "Just my landlord sayin', all nonchalant like, 'By th' way, th' feckin' buildin's been feckin' sold and ya need to get th' feck out 'fore the month's up'." Duo scoffed as he threw his phone on his bed. Heero could tell how angry Duo was by how thick his L2 accent became.  
"It would'a been nice if this fucklord said something sooner like, 'Hey, I'm selling the place, you might wanna start looking,' but nope! He didn't." He ran a hand through his fringe, sighing.  
"I guess he expected you to know," Heero said.

Duo shoved his hands in his pockets, his face disappointed. "Where am I gonna find a place by the end of the month? An actual place, not some scumlord house with no plumbing and the place is on the brink of condemned."  
Heero slipped his jeans on. "Could you even afford it?" This area of the colony was the only reasonable area left—even Heero had to pay quite a bit for his place, and it was considered small for a two bedroom.  
"Not right away," Duo answered. "I need time to get that kind of cash. My credit is shit, so I'll need like three months' worth of rent up front for a deposit." He groaned. "This bastard screwed me over! I'm gonna end up out on the streets again."

Heero's eyes narrowed a little at that. He knew, of course, that Duo had once been out on the streets, but that was a very long time ago now. But the way Duo sounded made Heero think this bout of homelessness was much more recent than that.  
"Duo."  
Duo looked at him, his eyes an open book that showed he was not only angry, but also worried.  
"Move back in with me."

Duo's eyes widened. "What?"  
"Move back in with me," Heero repeated. "You don't have to stay forever if that's not what you want. You can stay until you're able to get a place of your own."  
"'Ro."  
Heero reached for Duo's face, cupped it in between his palms.  
"The second bedroom is yours if you want it."  
Duo smirked as he wrapped his arms around Heero's waist and pulled him close.  
"What if I wanna sleep with you?"  
"You can," Heero said. "But your stuff has to go in the second bedroom. Mine isn't big enough. Or we can make arrangements."

Duo kissed Heero softly, threaded his fingers through his hair as he closed the remaining distance between their bodies.  
"It's a deal," Duo said against Heero's mouth, before kissing him again, deeper this time. Heero wrapped an arm around Duo's neck and pulled him back onto the bed.  
"You should've told me you wanted a round two," Duo teased. "I would've kept my pants off."  
"I didn't know I wanted a round two," was Heero's answer before Duo shut him up with his tongue and mouth.


	8. Lunch With a Side of Intervention and a Helping of Celebration

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Quatre isn't sure how Heero will take the idea of an intervention; Heero and Duo aren't sure how Quatre will take the idea of a poly relationship. All three end up pleasantly surprised.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This has been sitting in my Google Drive since 20 June due to life and work getting in the way, sorry for the delay!

_October 5th, AC 205_  
_8am_

It had started to rain shortly after Quatre arrived at Winnermart and naturally he had no umbrella. Judging from the number of employees running for the front doors, he guessed they were in the same boat he was. Surely they weren't that excited to start their shifts, right? Quatre had been caught off guard simply because the colony he resided on didn't exactly have rain. Complacency ruined a lot of things.

"You didn't listen to the weather report, did you?" Kate asked, umbrella dripping all over the floor. Quatre gave her a rather sheepish grin.  
"I didn't have much time to—I overslept."  
"We sell some over in the apparel accessories section for like five bucks or something like that. Feel free to pick one up, it's gonna continue like this the rest of the day."

A customer nearly slipped on the tile out in the vestibule of the store, which was the complete opposite of dry thanks to the amount of shoppers coming in sopping wet. It looked like a lot of people had left their umbrellas at home.  
"I guess no one from maintenance got the rugs out," Kate said, before paging for one of them to bring out the Inclement Weather Rugs to all of the entrances and out by the cart rail. "They brought out the dryer but not the rugs. Typical."  
Quatre shook his head. No one used their heads in this place except a select few.

"I'd like to use the AD Office to get some work done," Quatre said. "Do you think anyone is in there who would mind?" It was just some last minute paperwork with a dash of personal research, nothing too special, but not necessarily something he wanted just anyone to see.  
Kate looked at her watch. "Jenn should be in there. I doubt she'd mind, normally she likes it when people stop by." She shoved her umbrella into one of the umbrella bags on the service desk counter and headed towards the podium to stow it away somewhere, Quatre behind her.

"Today on Winnermart Radio... A taste of the Oldies!" the announcer for the corporate controlled radio said, before launching into a song one would find on the classic rock station.  
"Since when was Basket Case an 'oldie'?" Kate asked Cheyenne.  
"I guess the AC 190s are 'old'. I'm only 20 and a lot of these songs make _me_ feel old because I remember when some of them came out."  
"I've got ten years on you, Chey, and believe me, that feeling never goes away," Kate said, as she perused the TMAT. "You're the only cashier?"  
"CSM Erica says I have three cashiers coming in at 8:30 and one at nine."  
"Let's hope the nine o'clock shows up, she never does when it's raining out..."

Quatre rang the doorbell for the AD Office and went inside once he was buzzed in. In the 'hallway' there was a rack for the Telxons, which was suspiciously empty. A file cabinet to the left of the door had a large dent in the top drawer, which looked like it didn't contain much inside of it due to the damage. The bottom drawer was open enough to not be a tripping hazard, but gave Quatre a glimpse of file folders and papers. To the right were document holders nailed to the walls, each with the name of a manager written on masking tape on the front. Most of them looked like they had never been emptied and were in danger of overflowing.

Quatre entered the AD Office proper and sat there at one of the desks was Jennifer Parr, the co-manager for store 6969, on her iPad, playing what sounded like Bejeweled.  
_You know it's going to be a slow day when you have your managers playing games on their mobile devices instead of doing work.._.  
Jennifer looked up and nearly dropped her tablet. The sounds of jewels exploding abruptly cut off as she exited the game. She got to her feet, tablet on the desk now.  
"Mr Winner—"  
"Please, Jennifer," Quatre said. "Call me Quatre."  
"Likewise call me Jenn," the brunette said. "Nobody calls me 'Jennifer' unless I've done something wrong."

Quatre gestured to the computer. "May I?"  
Jenn nodded. "Sure. I actually wanted to discuss something with you..."  
Quatre took a seat in front of the computer and turned it around so he could still converse with Jenn, who was calm enough now from her initial shock to sit back down.  
"ZMS Kate recommended Heero to be an assistant manager. I looked through his file, I listened to what others had to say about his abilities..."  
Quatre leaned back in his seat. "Do you object to that?"  
Jenn shook her head. "No. Policy states you need to be here six months or more in order to gain a promotion, but he doesn't meet that requirement, and I was wondering if we could waive it."

Quatre took a deep breath. Technically this wasn't up to him, it was up to Regional HR. And the Regional HR Manager was his older sister, Adina, who was notoriously difficult to deal with. However as the Chief Executive Officer for Winnermart, he of course had the power to override any decision made by the company at his discretion. Quatre feared if he used his sway as owner of the company to give Heero what he was, by all intents and purposes, entitled to, it would be seen as nepotism. However, if Heero was recommended by several of his managers...

"Technically, you would need to talk to Market or Regional about that," Quatre said. "But I don't see why they can't if he meets everything else. Is there some kind of system override that needs to happen?"  
Jenn shook her head. "No, actually, there isn't. But I didn't want to just go ahead and do it without some kind of approval and then have to take the job away from him."  
_No one gave me any flack for giving Duo a job a couple of years back. I can be someone's friend—maybe something more—and still be objective. They're going to have to trust my judgment on this one too._  
"You have my approval," Quatre said. "And if anyone gives you any problems, you can tell them that the President and CEO of Winnermart signed off on it at the advice of the co-manager and several of his peers."  
Jenn nodded. "I'll get the paperwork in order for it then."

Quatre went onto the SMART system to go through the official termination procedures for people like Drew who decided to go out kicking and screaming (literally), and see what else needed to be done. He was only working until noon. He idly tapped at the keyboard as he went through the list of terminated associates.  
_Maybe if I finish everything that I need to do today early, I'll just leave instead of staying._ He pulled out his phone and sent Duo a text message. Within minutes, Quatre now had lunch plans scheduled (they would be at Duo's place, ordering from a local pizza and deli) and one thing left to do before he went on his way.

_How to stage an intervention for alcohol dependence_ ended up tapped into the address and search bar on his Chrome phone app, since there wasn't outside internet on the work computers.  
_We have to try our best to help Heero before it's too late_ , Quatre thought, as he scrolled through the list of links.

* * *

"You know, if I had put more thought into this, I would've gone grocery shopping and just made you guys an awesome as hell lunch," Duo said, as he rummaged through his box of takeout menus. "Unfortunately, I didn't, so we're doing takeout."  
Heero was sat at the kitchen table, which was really just a bunch of two-by-fours nailed together to form a table, a can of vanilla flavoured coke opened in front of him, arms folded on the table.  
"It doesn't matter to me," Heero said.  
"Was thinking of Kat," Duo answered. "Bet he's never had food like this in his life. Probably has five course meals and shit for lunch..."

Heero said nothing, just drank his soda.  
"Nah, you know what? He probably don't care either way."  
"If he did, I don't think he'd be frequenting places like McDonalds for lunch," Heero added. "Don't worry about it. It's Quatre."  
"Yeah, yeah, I know." He pulled out three takeout menus. "I'll have Kat pick the place. Got three delis around here that make the _best_ fucking sandwiches and sides I've ever had in any of the clusters. Seriously, orgasm in your mouth." He took the seat across from Heero before fanning the menus out on the table.

Heero gave Duo a hint of a smile. "If I didn't know any better, I'd say you were acting like we're all going out on a date and not having an intervention."  
"You mean this can't count as a date?"  
Heero took another swig of soda. "It can count as whatever you want."  
"Does Kat even know what's going on?" Duo gestured between the two of them.  
"No, but we should discuss it with him at some point before making anything official."  
Duo rested his cheek against the palm of his hand. "Something makes me think this'll be less of an intervention and more like a confession of feelings."  
"Knowing Quatre, it might be a bit of both."

The doorbell rang and Duo didn't need to look through the peephole to know it was Quatre. He opened the door, grinning.  
"Hey, Kat! You're early."  
"Yes, sorry," Quatre said, as he made his way inside. "I was wondering if we could talk before he got—" He saw Heero sat at the table. "Oh."  
"If you want, I can pretend I don't hear anything as you and Duo talk," Heero offered.  
Quatre gave Duo a look.  
"He stayed over," Duo said. "Plus he already knows what this is about."  
Quatre blinked. "He does?"  
"He figured it out yesterday when he overheard us talking."  
Quatre frowned.  
"You weren't very discreet," Heero said, before drinking more of his soda.

Quatre sighed and ran a hand through his hair before taking a seat next to Heero at the table. Duo resumed his place across from Heero.  
"I did find an addiction specialist by the name of..." Quatre scrolled through his phone. "Miss P. Caulfield."  
"Does the 'P' stand for Phoebe?"  
Quatre shook his head. "No, it stands for Phoenix, I believe."  
Heero nodded. "So not like the Catcher in the Rye character."

Both Duo and Quatre gave him strange looks.  
"If either of you finished high school, you would've read it."  
"Anyway," Duo said, waving his hand to dismiss the previous conversation, "Kat wants you to give her a call."  
Quatre nodded. "Alcoholics Anonymous might be worth attending as well. I will send you an email with all of the contact information so you can get started on your road to recovery." He placed his hand on top of Heero's, squeezing it lightly. "Whatever happens... I will be here to make sure you get through it."

Duo eyed Quatre's hand. "Before we start celebrating... There's something _you_ need to know."  
"Yes?"  
Duo looked to Heero. "I dunno how to say it, so I'll have Heero do the honours."  
"Duo and I had a talk last night." Heero turned his hand so Quatre was now clasping his hand.  
"You and him... You're getting back together, aren't you?"  
"Hold on a hot minute, Kat," Duo said. "Heero and I—"  
"We haven't made anything official," Heero interrupted, "because of how I feel about you."  
Quatre blinked. "Me?"  
"I still have feelings for you, and I know how you feel about me. You want a relationship with me, and I want a relationship with you too."  
Quatre looked between Heero and Duo. "But if you and Duo are getting back together, then I don't see where I would fit—"  
"In the middle," Duo said with a grin. "Between Heero and between me." Duo grabbed Heero's other hand. "We already talked about this and I'm okay with this being a poly relationship, with you and me and Heero." Duo held out his free hand.  
"It's a lot to take in," Heero said. "I didn't mean to spring this on you out of the blue, and if you don't want to pursue this kind of relationship, I get it."

Quatre looked at Duo's offered hand.  
"You're polysexual?"  
"The labels don't matter," Heero answered. "What matters is that I love you, and I love Duo, and I don't feel that love should be limited to just one person. Not everyone feels that way, and I won't stop you from walking away if this isn't what you want."

Quatre took a deep breath.  
_A chance to rekindle my relationship with Duo...and a chance for something with Heero._ This was more than he could ever ask for. _Why didn't I think of this sooner?_ It honestly never occurred to him, but then again, Quatre didn't have a lot of time to think about personal matters, such as his love life—or what was a lack thereof at that point.

Quatre took Duo's hand.  
"I'm willing to try if you both are."  
Duo had the cheesiest grin on his face.  
"Pick the place, Kit Kat," Duo said, gesturing now to the menus on the table. "We got some news to celebrate!"  
Quatre couldn't help but smile. After the recent goings on, it was nice to be able to celebrate for once.


	9. Choices

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Heero is offered a promotion, but he's not sure he wants to take it, after all what will happen to his budding relationship with Duo and Quatre if he accepts? Quatre is the CEO, and Duo is his CSM. Despite Heero's best efforts, his life keeps getting more complicated, and on top of this he's trying to fend off addiction. No matter what Heero does, he's going to have to make a choice eventually...

_October 11th, AC 205_

Heero had only just clocked into Winnermart when Kate pulled him aside.  
"They want you in the Personnel office."  
"Again?" _What's it for now?_  
"No idea," Kate said. "They just told me to pass the message along." She clapped him on the back. "I don't think it's bad. If it was bad, they would've waited till the end of your shift."  
_Well that's mildly encouraging_. He nodded, not concerned with who would be covering Rochelle's lunch (he assumed a CSM or someone) as he headed to the back area of the store where the HR office was located.

* * *

Once again, there were important looking people sitting at the tables normally reserved for orientations. Among them were Quatre and Co-Manager Jenn, who was sorting through some papers. He knocked on the opened door so he wouldn't take anyone by surprise before walking in. Dottie and her training coordinator were strangely absent. Quatre beckoned him to the seat between him and Jenn, where Heero quietly sat down.

"Heero Yuy, is it?" said a man with the straightest hair Heero had ever seen—it put Zechs to shame.  
"Like the leader of the colonies?" Heero heard another murmur to the man sitting next to him. That man shrugged. Heero was used to people questioning his name, nearly everyone did it at least once.  
"Do you know what this is about?" asked the man who had shrugged earlier. Heero shook his head.  
"We have an offer for you," said Jenn.  
"Can I refuse it?"  
Everyone outside of Quatre looked at each other in confusion. Clearly these big wigs didn't share the same sense of humour he did.  
"I...suppose you can," Jenn said, "but it would be foolish to do so without first listening."  
Heero folded his arms. "I'm listening."

The man who had questioned his name earlier cleared his throat. Heero noticed the strange pattern on his tie— _Are those whales?_  
"We have a rather glowing recommendation from your zone supervisor about your leadership skills," he said. "Not to mention your file lists all sorts of commendations you've received in the past, befitting the self-styled 'Perfect Soldier'." He shuffled his papers.  
"When have I ever called myself that?"  
"You have taken a major leadership role not only in Preventers but also during the Eve Wars and during the Uprising. You show a level of stoicness and coolness not normally found in a soldier of your age..."  
Heero cocked an eyebrow. "I was trained to have emotional restraint—what does any of this have to do with Winnermart?"

"What Esteban and Onix are saying is we think you are qualified for a management position with Winnermart."  
_What?_  
"Don't I need some kind of supervisory experience?"  
"You do," Jenn said, "and your time with Preventers and you being a war veteran fulfills it in our eyes. Never mind that you have the full support of your CEO and various other management in the company." She handed him a booklet. "We just need you to answer some questions in the booklet before proceeding."

Heero opened the booklet and was greeted with an extremely high gloss introduction page.  
"And there's no conflict of interest?"  
"From what?" Onix asked.  
"From Quatre and I knowing each other from previous lines of work." _And the fact that we're also dating._  
The other man, whose name badge said his name was Wilford, looked between Quatre and Heero.  
"Mr Winner, is this true?"  
Quatre nodded. "Yes, it is. However, I haven't seen Heero in years and I didn't know he was employed here until recently; not only that, Jennifer and Kate are the ones who made the choice, not me—I just approved the waiver for the time at Winnermart requirement—and Heero doesn't have to take the position if he feels he is being offered it due to perceived nepotism."

Heero held up the booklet. "What exactly is this for?"  
"It's the leadership assessment," Wilford said. "It's only four questions."  
Heero read the first question, which asked what he would do if a customer became angry.  
"Sou ka..."  
"So will you take the position? It's salaried, full time work with full benefits and you would be making about 50 a year before bonus." Onix pushed a sheet of paper towards Heero with a pen on top. "If you sign by the X and date it, it'll be officially yours."

Heero stared at the document, all eyes on him as he reached for the pen.  
"Before I sign this... I have a question."  
"Yes?" Onix folded his hands neatly on his blotter.  
"Say I was in a relationship with someone who is on the same level as me. What happens then?"  
Onix, Wilford, Esteban, and Jenn looked at each other. Kate shifted in her seat and Quatre whispered in his ear, "Heero, what are you doing?"

Esteban cleared his throat again. Clearly someone needed to give him a throat lozenge.  
"You would need to disclose with whom you are having a relationship with in the store and it would be under probation."  
"Probation?"  
"To prove," Onix continued, after Esteban launched into a coughing fit, "that you and the other associate can remain strictly professional while on the clock and on company owned and sponsored premises while on your lunch or break periods for 90 days. If no incidents occur, then the relationship is allowed. If not, we will transfer or demote as deemed necessary. Of course if they're working at another store then it doesn't matter so long as it's store manager or under."  
"And depending on who it is," Wilford added, "it might not be allowed at all."

Heero leaned back in his seat. Quatre chewed his lip.  
"Are you in a relationship with anyone at this store?"  
Heero was silent for a moment. _I'm dating the CEO and my CSM_.  
Onix shifted in his seat, which caused it to creak a little. Heero winced at the sound.  
"Mr Yuy?"  
_He's dead_ , Heero thought.  
"I am."  
" _Heero_ ," Quatre whispered.  
_I can't lie, my integrity and your integrity are on the line here._  
Another chair creaked. Heero's eye twitched.

"And with whom are you in a relationship with?" Esteban croaked.  
"With CSM Duo."  
Onix wrote it down on his blotter. "Is there anyone else?"  
"There is—"  
Quatre stood.  
"Mr Winner?"

_I refuse to keep this a secret,_ Quatre thought. _Even if I have to step down as the CEO for this to work._  
"Heero and I are also," Quatre said. "Heero, Duo, and myself are all romantically involved." He looked each of the members of Market in the eyes.  
"Mr Winner... You are the CEO."  
"I am well aware of that fact," Quatre answered. "Heero and I have worked close quarters before with absolutely no problems. He and I are perfectly capable of acting in a professional capacity. Duo as well." Quatre placed his hands on the table, leaning heavily on them. "And if I must, then I will step down as CEO."

Onix, Wilford, and Esteban looked sucker punched.  
"This is absurd," Onix finally said.  
"There is nothing absurd about love," Quatre answered. "Let us prove to you all that we are more than capable of handling ourselves in a manner befitting the most professional of Winnermart associates."  
The three men whispered to each other.  
"There will be a probation period of six months instead of the usual 90 days, providing Mr Yuy passes the drug test and passes the assessment. Furthermore he cannot amass any coachings or absences that aren't caused by extenuating circumstances in that six months or we will demote him."  
Quatre sat down. "That is acceptable."  
"That's if I accept the job offer," Heero said. "How long do I have to decide?"  
"Until Friday the fourteenth."  
"Then I will decide by then." Heero stood, the feet of his chair scraping the linoleum that made up the floor.  
"We could have someone else by then," Onix said. "You'd be out of luck."  
Heero shrugged. "Do what you like," he said. "If you find someone you wouldn't have to make so many exceptions for, pick them over me regardless of their qualifications." He looked at everyone seated at the table.  
"I'm not a 'strike while the pan is hot' person. Not anymore."

_Not when it's been the cause of costly mistakes_.

* * *

"Heero."  
Quatre slid onto the seat across from Heero with a grace and ease few possessed. The break room was pretty empty considering it was 1pm and most people had lunch at this hour, but the nice weather probably led them to places outside the confines of Winnermart. Heero was reading a newspaper someone had left on the break room table while absentmindedly spinning spaghetti around the tines of his fork. He didn't look up at Quatre, nor did he respond.

"Why aren't you going to take it?"  
"Not gonna take what?" He unfolded the newspaper so he could turn the page before refolding it.  
"The assistant manager position." There was an urgency and a hint of gobsmacked in his voice that Heero didn't understand. "Why aren't you going to take it?"  
"Who said I wasn't?" He ate the forkful of pasta, slurping up a stray spaghetti noodle. "Just because I didn't jump on it, doesn't mean I'm not interested."  
"Heero—"

Heero looked up from the newspaper and he heard the barely audible sharp inhale of breath Quatre made.  
"You realise that they don't like the fact that you and I are fucking." He twirled more pasta around his fork.  
"We _aren't_ ," Quatre said. "You and I haven't been intimate—yet. None of that _matters_ , they said they would work with it."  
"You saw their faces. You heard it in their voices. They don't like the idea of you dating someone so far beneath you."

Heero let that hang in the air as Quatre's shoulders slumped. He stared at the worn tablecloth covering the white plastic tabletop.  
"They're going to have to get over it," Quatre said, his voice soft. "Your managers have seen you work. The higher ups have seen your file, they know how well you work and the good that you've done with Preventers—"  
"Do you think people really care? If I do a good job on something and get a letter about it, or something good happens, it'll be in the backs of everyone's minds that I only likely got it because I'm in bed with the Winner heir."

Quatre was silent as Heero turned back to the newspaper.  
"This is stupid." Quatre clenched a fist on the table. "It's stupid that all of this matters." He looked up at Heero. "It's not your fault and it's not my fault and it's not Duo's fault that we all fell in love with each other." He gestured towards the door. "They can see how well you and Duo work. If it wasn't for this special occasion of the store needing assistance from corporate, I would still be on L4."  
"Which, as CEO, is where you'll be returning to." Heero turned another page. "You realise that too, don't you?"  
"I can be the CEO and stay here," Quatre argued. "Why are you offering nothing but negative possibilities? Me leaving is not the only possibility, Heero."  
"Quatre—"  
"What are you afraid of, Heero? What are you—"  
Heero dropped his fork, his eyes narrowed.  
"I'm not afraid," Heero said, with more force than he had intended.

Quatre looked away, Heero's gaze too intense for him at the moment.  
"I'm sorry," he whispered.  
Heero sighed as he ran a hand through his hair. "Don't. It's my fault. I shouldn't be arguing in my condition."  
"Condition...?" It took Quatre two seconds to realise. "Oh!" Alcohol withdrawal came with a slew of side effects, one of which was increased agitation and irritability as well as episodes of hostility. Heero had only been sober for a week.

"I will figure something out," Quatre said, grasping Heero's hands. "I promise I will make us work. I care about you and Duo too much to let any of this get between us."  
Heero cleared his throat and nodded at their hands. Quatre retracted them.  
"Sorry. You're right, I shouldn't do that."  
"Not unless you do that with everyone," Heero said.  
Quatre smiled a little. "No, I don't. Maybe I should, it might boost morale." He got up from his seat, walked over to Heero before placing a hand on his shoulder.

"Please consider the job offer," Quatre said. "You are a great asset to this store and to this company. Don't forget that." He squeezed Heero's shoulder before heading off to the HR office.  
Heero resumed his lunch in silence. He could hear, albeit rather faintly, someone yelling in disbelief in Personnel. It sounded like Kate.  
_I hope everything's okay in there_ , he thought, as he read a story about how someone stole a balloon from a local Green's Pharmacy.

* * *

As soon as Heero signed onto his register about an hour before needing to leave for the day, a man with bloodshot, slightly bulging eyes and extremely pale skin with way too big clothes stepped forward on the line and plopped his bag full of returns down onto the counter. He grinned and showed off teeth with lots of broccoli bits in them.  
"I'd like to return this," he said, as he pulled out a car freshener out of the bag, "and this." A single white shirt ended up next to the pine tree scented car freshener.  
"Do you have a receipt?"

The man pulled out his wallet, that grin still on his face as he pulled out a very wrinkled receipt and handed it to him. Heero typed the transaction number in since the barcode itself was too faded to scan.  
"You should smile," the customer said. Heero said nothing in response, nor did he smile, because who the hell would ask for something like that? Heero scanned the closest item to him, which was the shirt.  
"C'mon," the customer said. "Smile for me."  
Heero threw the item onto the back counter before grabbing the other one and repeating the process.  
"Smile, Heero!"  
Heero threw the air freshener behind him. Ray and Rochelle as well as a few customers were giving the customer strange looks.

"Would you like your credit returned to your card or on a store credit?"  
The man frowned. "I guess on my credit card."  
Heero pressed the applicable button.  
"I'm sorry you're having a bad day," the man said. "I'll pray for you."  
The receipt printed and Heero handed it and the original receipt to him. "Have a good day, sir."  
As the man walked away, he yelled over his shoulder, "Smile more! You'd look better with one!"

The next customer took her things out of the plastic bag and placed them on the counter, receipt on top.  
"Who was that?"  
Heero shrugged. "No clue, I've never seen him before today."  
"He was a bit strange," she said, as he handed him her receipt.  
"I think that's being too nice," Ray said. "I was ready to call Duo over."  
At that moment, Duo's voice came over the walkie, loud and clear.  
"Can I get a manager to register fourteen? There's a customer here harassing a cashier because she won't smile and it's either I kick his ass outta the store, or a manager deals with it."

Heero could hear someone screaming, "Why is no one smiling at the happiest place on Earth?!"  
"We're not even on Earth," said the customer Heero was helping. "And clearly he isn't either."  
Heero went through the next (and last) three customers with no problems when Duo came over with a screaming toddler in his arms and a look of distress on his face.  
"So Aaryn in Foods found this kid wandering the frozen food aisle and handed him off to me. Has anyone been told by someone that their kid was missing?"

Ray shook his head. Rochelle said, "Nope."  
"Well fuck," Duo said. "What do I do with the kid?"  
Heero approached Duo from his side of the counter and leaned over it to address the inconsolable child.  
"Hey," he said, voice soft. "What's your name?"  
In between sobbing and hiccups the little girl said, "H-Hannah."  
"Hannah?"  
She nodded.  
"That's a pretty name. Hannah, do you know what your mommy's name is?"  
It took her a few tries but she finally said, "Mama."  
_Great._  
"And your dad's?"  
"D-Daddy." She shrieked. "I want Mama!"  
Rochelle winced. "This isn't very helpful."

Heero took a deep breath before heading for the phone towards the middle of the service desk counter, in between registers 92 and 91. He picked up the handset and dialed the number for the overhead paging system.  
"Attention Winnermart shoppers, we have a child whose parents are missing in the store. If your child has wandered off and you are unable to locate them, please come to customer service to speak with a member of management so we can reunite this child with their rightful parents or guardians. Thank you."

Shortly after Heero's announcement, a sobbing young woman ran towards the service desk; the toddler wriggled out of Duo's arms and ran for her, shouting, "Mama!" through tears.  
"I see where the kid gets the sobbing hysterical like thing from," Duo mumbled.  
"Oh my god, I'm so, so, so sorry, baby girl!" the young woman said. "Is she okay?" she asked Duo.  
"Yep. She's pretty shaken, but that's expected."  
"Thank you so much for finding her, I couldn't find her anywhere and I got so frantic..."  
"We didn't find her," Heero said. "One of the Foods associates found her and brought her to our CSM here."  
"Can I please meet them so I can thank them?"  
Duo nodded. "Of course." He paged for Aaryn over the walkie since he was one of the Foods department managers.

The next customer Heero took was an elderly woman with a rather sour expression.  
"This is why there should be a minimum age to have children," she said, slamming her bag onto the counter. "Irresponsible! Children should not be having children! Some paedophile could've snatched that precious angel up and the Good Almighty Lord only knows what that pervert would do to such a sweet little girl like her!" She fished her items out of her gigantic purse and practically threw them at Heero.  
"I should call CPS," she muttered.  
Heero rolled his eyes. "You've never lost your kids in a supermarket?"  
"Of course not! Times were better back then, people were more responsible, and there were Alliance soldiers on practically every corner. I felt safer!"  
"Funny," Ray quipped, "I felt the opposite when the Alliance was in town! That's why I fought for OZ instead."

The elderly woman said nothing else for the rest of the transaction except, "Don't have children if you can't be bothered to look after them every minute!"  
After she left, Duo came over and asked, "The hell crawled up her ass and died?"  
"Nothing," Ray said. "Just some hag bitter because the Alliance lost."  
Duo scoffed. "Betcha she ain't this perfect mom neither. Shit happens, kids wander off."  
"I guess we shouldn't have kids then if we can't be perfect parents," Heero said. "At least in her world anyway."  
"I can see why some people have kids just to spite people..." Duo grinned. "Happy ending at least with the kid. Never knew you were such a softie when it came to 'em." Duo leaned over the counter and whispered in Heero's ear, "It's pretty damn hot."  
Duo's voice went straight to Heero's dick. Duo moved away, grin on his face, before heading off towards the registers when his palm pilot beeped angrily.  
"What the hell does register 14 want this time?!"

_How do you expect me to be professional when Duo makes comments like that_? Heero thought, as he turned his attentions towards the mess on the back counter. _But then again, as long as we don't jump each other in the bathroom or openly flirt in front of management, I don't think it really matters, does it?_   He threw the items into their respective bins.  
_Right?_

Heero's life was becoming way too complicated, way too fast.


	10. Moving Day

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Duo's slated to move in with Heero; Heero, meanwhile, has to begin the process of hiring the replacements for the people he's about to fire as his first stint as an assistant manager. Is Quatre thinking of buying new real estate to be closer to his boyfriends? Heero keeps fighting his demons but how long will that last?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had this sitting in my Google Docs for...a long white. Then I added to it some, and it sat there longer. Now I'm finally letting this chapter see the light of day after a couple more rounds of editing. Hopefully chapter eleven will see the light of day sooner than it took this one.

_October 14th, AC 205_

Duo didn't have a lot of possessions.

Well, that wasn't quite true.

Duo didn't have a lot of possessions he actually wanted to _keep_. His clothes he could easily fit into a couple of garbage bags plus the large duffel bag he used during Preventers as his go-bag. His computer slipped into a nice hard shell case for safe keeping and his toiletries were pretty much gone. Over the past week or so Duo had been slowly moving his things over to Heero's apartment, things he didn't need immediately in order to function at home or at work. Most of his furniture he planned on donating to some other poor soul in need--after all, most of it came from a Goodwill anyway. He didn't need his bed because Heero had one, a nice, comfy, not lumpy one that didn't squeak whenever they fucked and didn't threaten to drop them both after.

Duo chuckled at the memory of _that_ bed, the Bed of a Thousand Splinters, as he finished shoving the last of his clothes into an almost unclosable heavy duty black bag.

Duo was off and Heero was not, so Duo had Quatre as his helper for the day. Heero had left a spare key with the blond to give to Duo under the condition that Quatre help them both out, and Quatre had no problems agreeing because he enjoyed being useful to people. Dressed in a normal button down shirt over a tank top and some regular blue jeans, Quatre hefted two bags of clothes into the rented car he had procured for just this occasion since Duo was not yet 25, and though he had piloted a 50 foot tall death machine or two and drove all sorts of vehicles during his stint in Preventers, somehow he could not be trusted to rent a car at his very young, irresponsible age of 24. He had a little less than two months left until they would.

Being the 'baby' of the pilots sometimes really sucked. He couldn't even go out drinking when Heero had turned 21, because Duo was 20 at the time, and L1 was, unsurprisingly, a little on the strict side when it came to pubs and bars, and Duo couldn't be bothered to get a fake ID. That was okay, because Duo continued the 'celebrations' at home, which more than made up for not being able to drink. Still, he didn't feel very appreciated when he was left out of all the rest of the fun.

(And then shortly after that, their lives collectively fell apart. But Duo hated to think about it, though unfortunately it liked to pop up more often than he liked.)

"I can't believe they're planning on putting luxury condos here," Quatre said, as he closed the trunk lid with slightly more force than was necessary. He was used to cars with much heavier doors with bulletproof exteriors. "This doesn't look like the greatest of areas..." The surrounding buildings were boarded up, painted with graffiti on the brick face, dilapidated... And those were the ones that were _housing_ people. The places that were abandoned were partially retaken by nature, proving that even in an artificial shell, nature would still prevail if given the chance.

"It ain't," Duo said, as he leaned against the car. "It's pretty shit, to be honest with you. They're trying to clean it up, but there's only so much you can do, you know? To areas like this 'specially. I mean I've seen worse, but..." He shrugged. "Ain't my problem no more. Heero lives in a much better area, and his internet don't randomly cut out at 5pm every night for no reason." He smiled. "His place is a palace compared to this."

_I think anything could be considered a palace in comparison_ , Quatre thought, before saying, "I've started looking at prices for houses and the like in the area."

" _This_ area?" Duo said, eyes wide as he gestured to the dirt beneath their feet which may or may not have once been asphalt.

Quatre shook his head. "Oh, _no_. More in the 'suburbs' here, not too far from where you and Heero will be residing."

"Why?" Duo rested an arm on the open passenger side door. "Wouldn't you like a vacation home somewhere more fancy? Maybe dirtside?" He thought for a moment. "I've heard Hawaii's real nice, and then there's the Caribbean..."

Quatre sat on the passenger seat. "Don't tell Heero, because I haven't figured out all of the logistics yet, but I plan on relocating to this area in the not too distant future. Perhaps in two months, one if I can swing it, but that will depend on how long everything else will take as far as work goes."

Quatre didn't really _have_ a place of his own, not with all of the traveling he did as part of his job, so that wasn't the hard part. The hard part would be _settling down_ and planting roots somewhere, which would likely require some major adjustments in his professional life. Adjustments that might not please everyone, especially Jeff. And if they'd gotten wind that he'd bought a more practical house instead of some sprawling estate, well... Jeff would end up explaining what a Winner "is and isn't."

One would think that Quatre would be the one to decide what a Winner was and wasn't, considering he was now the head of the family, and often he would wonder if Jeff wasn't secretly the head of it with Quatre as some puppet leader.

"Don't wanna do the long distance thing, huh?"

"Unfortunately until I'm able to make this my permanent colonial residence, there will have to be some long distancing." Quatre sighed, clenching his fists on his lap. "I don't have to worry too much about the relationship during that time, at least. Loneliness is the biggest obstacle in an LDR, and I don't think Heero will be very lonely while I'm gone."

Quatre realised that last bit must have sounded somewhat bitter, because Duo muttered a, "Yeah," and averted his gaze. Duo shouldn't feel bad about all of this, and yet here he was, feeling bad, which in turn made Quatre feel bad. "But if it was just the two of you, Heero wouldn't be messin' 'round behind your back or nothin'."

"No, I know that," Quatre confirmed. "You won't be lonely either in my absence. That was the biggest reason why we didn't work out. I'd be absent more than present, and that wasn't fair to you. To either of us."

Now Duo felt even worse. About the fact that Quatre would be missing out on a huge chance to spend time with and get to know Heero in regards to a romantic relationship, while he would be absolutely _flourishing_. And on Heero's end, he'd get to reconnect with Duo, but Quatre wouldn't get that same opportunity. Not only that, Quatre would also be missing out on the start of Heero's post-alcoholism recovery, which was something that worried Duo, although Quatre probably did more than enough worrying for everyone. He'd been sober for two weeks so far and was doing as well as they could expect. He'd started posting in the 'stopdrinking' subreddit and found a lot of resources and support there, but Duo knew that all of that and Alcoholics Anonymous wasn't going to be enough.

Heero would need the both of them to make it through. But if Quatre wasn't able to be there, what would happen then? Duo would end up shouldering most of it, which, hell, he'd be doing that anyway if it was just the two of them. But the last thing Duo wanted was for Heero to feel like someone had abandoned him. Again.

Duo and Quatre fell into a comfortable silence, though one thing did nag at Duo's mind a bit, had been nagging at him for a while now.

"Are you..." Duo couldn't think of how to word it. "I mean, how do you feel? About this relationship and all. You sure you're okay with it?"

Quatre hummed a little. "My experience in terms of romantic relationships is rather limited, isn't it? Trowa and I dated for a while, but outside of kissing and holding hands, we didn't do much. You and I went much further, and I had never been with a man like that..." He flushed at the memory of Duo's head between his legs, of how his mouth felt against his skin. "I've never been with two people at the same time, if that's what you're referring to..."

Duo tapped on the side of the car with his knuckles to a beat that only he could hear. It was a thing he did to combat anxiety and awkwardness--keep your hands busy, you keep your mind busy, or so Duo believed.

"I just think that most people would've had a problem with it." Duo shrugged. "Especially since it's, you know, _Heero_. He ain't the most open person in the Earth Sphere. To be with one person is asking a lot, let alone two... That's a whole 'nother person to open yourself up to, all your vulnerabilities and insecurities. He's got a lot of those, but he's good at keepin' 'em buried. 'S why he started drinkin', he said."

Quatre laughed. "That's all right. I don't need Heero's declarations of love and adoration to know how he feels about me. His quiet intensity is more than enough." He looked up at Duo. "I'm always willing to try anything once, and Heero's philosophy on love makes sense. Love is the greatest gift you could possibly give someone, but why should you only give the gift of romantic love to one person? He loves you, that much is clear."

"He loves you too, in his own way."

"The way he looks at me is the same way I look at the two of you, although his eyes show more intensity."

"If you think him looking at you is intense, just wait till you get in the bedroom with him."

Duo laughed when Quatre's face turned bright pink as he wandered over to the driver's side. Quatre may have rented the car, but Duo was going to do all the driving. Quatre drove cars like a 'Sunday driver', which Duo always found funny because Quatre was the opposite on a motorbike.

"To put things plainly, I'm very tired of everyone telling me what I can and can't do, what is and isn't expected of me, all of that," Quatre said. "In business matters it's one thing, because that has an affect on many, many people. But in my personal life...the only person I should listen to is me and my heart, and to the people whose opinions matter."

"And what's your heart telling you?"

Quatre closed the passenger side door and buckled up.

"My heart wants to be with you and Heero. Here, on this colony. I'm 25 years old now, I think it's time I stayed in one place for longer than a month."

Duo started the car.

"That's a good place to be," Duo said. "It won't always be easy or nice, but..."

"I don't expect it to be; I've dealt with you and Heero long enough to know that already, and prepare for it. After all we fought a war or two together." He rested his hand on Duo's shoulder. "I'll love you both regardless of sunshine or rain, heatwaves or severe thunderstorms, hurricanes... Typhoons... No matter what, we'll work our way through it."

"I get your point," Duo said as he put the car in drive. "But if we ever encounter a hurricane or typhoon in _space_ , I think there's a problem, Kat."

* * *

Today was Decision Day.

Would Heero take the assistant manager position? Or would he stay where he was?

He stayed up until the wee hours of the morning weighing the pros and cons. More money, actual insurance, stable hours, guaranteed overtime at time and a half with a dash of much more responsibility. It wasn't like Heero had never lead a team before--he'd done well in Preventers with that sort of thing. But those teams were small, specialised teams. He'd be over apparel and the front end until they could find someone to run apparel. But also he would have to devote more time than maybe he would like down the road because of the longer hours and guaranteed overtime, especially during peak retail seasons such as Christmas (although Christmas was a more somber affair in the colonies than it might be on Earth).

But he'd wanted a better life for himself, right? And he couldn't do that being at the bottom of the barrel for the rest of his life.

He rang the doorbell to the AD office and was buzzed in before being seated at the counter inside and presented with a bunch of paperwork full of confidentiality agreements, permission for background checks that went a little deeper than the basic pre-employment one--not that there was much information because this Heero Yuy only existed from AC195 onwards, and his other aliases weren't attached to much anyway. The woman inside, who must've been someone affiliated with the HR department, gave him a pen and a smile. Seated next to her was the Market HR Manager, Anjelica.

"So, what's your decision, Heero?"

He looked at the paper on top, which was a job offer acceptance sheet. On it were details about his job title, salary, and other somewhat important information that no one really had to bother typing up, but did so anyway because everything in this place was designed to be as idiot proof as possible.

_I feel like I'm signing my life away_. It wasn't a comfortable feeling, didn't sit well in his stomach. He'd already signed his life away once, as a boy, to fight for a new world, a brighter future, all for the sake of the colonies. This wasn't nearly on the same level, but the feeling was still the same. He clicked the pen once and swiftly signed by the X a barely legible _Heero Yuy_. The subsequent pages required initials and date fill ins and all sorts of other information, and with each page he finished, Anjelica's assistant filed it away in a folder likely to be put into the system at a later date.

"You went to Saint Xavier's Academy on L1-C110?" Anjelica asked, his employee file open on her computer.

"I did."

"From AC196 to...AC197. And you graduated at 17?"

"Yeah," Heero said, as he filled out yet another sheet of paper. He wasn't sure why she was asking these questions, surely there was nothing suspicious about his high school education.

"And you've transferred out from quite a few..." She drummed her fingers on the desk. "And then there's a gap for several months in AC195."

Heero pushed the freshly signed and dated sheet over to the assistant.

"I was a soldier, so they pulled me out. What does this have to do with anything?"

"Nothing," Anjelica said. "I took you for older than you actually are. Despite being disrupted, your education wasn't impacted at all and you graduated towards the top of your class. I took you for early thirties at the _least_."

Heero wasn't sure how she could when it said his birth year right on there, but like everything else about his identity, she probably thought it was manufactured for convenience--it was common post-war for people to begin anew by creating new identities, shedding any bloodied pasts in favour of peaceful futures.

"I was born in AC180, and in the colonies you can skip grades if you pass a pre-assessment, which I did."

She made a little 'aha!' noise under her breath. "Right. That makes sense then. And tell me, were you a soldier with the Organisation of the Zodiac, the Alliance, or the White Fang?"

Heero froze mid signature. Not everyone in the Earth Sphere knew the identities of the five Gundam pilots beyond their OZ given codenames of Pilots 1 through 5. It wasn't in the history books. That information was supposed to remain classified.

So Heero decided to go with what could be vouched for, because he wanted his training, which was kicking in hardcore to abort, abort, _abort_ to shut off and deflection was his only option, Dr J said that no one was to _ever_ know, he'd have to self-detonate if anyone were able to compromise him, or else take out any witnesses and--

Heero took a deep breath. Several. He had to focus on that otherwise he'd tumble head first into a rabbit hole ending in a panic attack and coming to with a retractable pen in his hand like it was a self-detonate switch wondering what the hell even happened.

"I fought for the colonies and was in the White Fang for a little bit before the war ended, that's all you need to know." Although he supposed that technically Milliardo Peacecraft, head of the White Fang, was deceased on paper, but Zechs was still around and everyone knew it, so they could just give him a call if they needed to, and why was Heero feeling so incensed over this anyway? And just what did any of this have to do with his promotion?

"That's fine, it just asks when I click the 'war veteran' option."

_I was a Gundam pilot, but I can't tell you that_.

"Why does it even ask that?"

"You get a special designation on your name badge if you're a war veteran."

"So it has to ask what faction you're from?"

Anjelica shrugged. "It comes with a pin for your badge as well, but we do have more generic ones for those who...might not want to show who they're affiliated with. There is, for example, a lot of stigma against ex-OZ."

Not that the White Fang was much better to be affiliated with, but since they were for the colonies, the colonists hated them less.

Anjelica handed him another sheet of paper.

"Just sign off on this one and you're officially an assistant manager in training."

"And what does the training entail?"

Anjelica smiled. "It's nothing too complicated, mostly just computer based learning that takes about two weeks total. In the meantime you'll be on the floor following around an assistant manager who will show you your day-to-day activities, such as floor walks, tours, all that fun stuff. It's not as hard as it seems, just hard to find a balance between doing and delegating in the beginning."

In a store like this one, it might be harder than anyone thought. There weren't any assistant managers left save for two visiting ones. The rest Quatre had let go. Heero could figure everything out on his own, he was quick on his feet with that sort of thing, and it wasn't like Winnermart was known for properly training its associates anyway (something Quatre was trying to change), so what Heero _did_ learn was just from teaching himself.

Anjelica held out her hand, which Heero shook.

"Congratulations, Assistant Manager Heero. I have faith that you'll really make a difference in this store and help bring it back."

The last time someone had told him he was going to cause big changes, he ended up literally saving the world. Twice.

_I'm tired of saving things from the brink of destruction when I can barely save myself from the same end_.

* * *

First on Heero's agenda as an assistant manager: conduct a first interview for one of the (many) open cashier spots. No problem. How bad could that be? He headed back towards the HR office where his potential new cashier awaited him. She had no retail experience really, was middle aged, and was "looking for something to keep busy" according to what Dottie told him earlier in the day, along with, "She seems really nice and like a good fit!"

_Seeming nice and wanting to keep busy doesn't mean she'll be a good employee_.

He walked into the office, which just consisted of Dottie hunting-and-pecking away at her computer at a speed Heero didn't think was possible with just a finger and thumb, and the potential new hire sat at the hard plastic table, hands folded on its surface. Heero's brow furrowed.

_Why does she look familiar?_ He had that strange sensation of trying to find a name or place and it being _right there_ and yet too far out of grasp, especially since he couldn't exactly place _why_ she looked so familiar. She looked up and he noticed right away that a good portion of her face was scarred. They looked like second degree burn scars, if Heero had to guess.

The funny thing is, Heero could tell that she was trying to place _him_ from somewhere, he could read that much from her eyes alone.

"Ms Kanagawa?"

She nodded. "Please, call me Aoi."

Heero sat down across from her. Dottie had given him a sheet of paper with some questions to ask--there were eight in total, but half of them were just slightly reworded versions of the first four. Heero didn't really care about her naming a time when she took a leadership role, or anything like that. Maybe he wasn't being pragmatic enough, but Heero wanted to get to know a little bit about the _person_ and not just their abilities.

"Why should I hire you, Aoi?"

She looked a little taken aback, the question seemingly unexpected.

"Why do I want to work here?"

"You could tell me that if you want," Heero said, "but I'm more interested in why I should hire you. What are you giving me and this company that makes you better than the other fifteen people I have on my list?"

She looked at her hands, took a deep breath, and then laid them flat on the table, one on top of the other.

"I need to work and this is the only place for ex-OZ like me to go. I need to work because I have nothing else in my life. I work hard, I learn quick, I will cashier, push carts, do customer service, literally any position in this store you have to offer me, I will do. I can stay late, come in early, work all day if you need."

_Maybe I should've gone with the stock questions._ Still, it was _his_ idea to dig deeper into people's lives during the hiring process, not Corporate's. Corporate likely didn't care about anything except if they had a pulse. Well. The _CEO_ cared, but that board of directors he had were a completely different story. And with the way things were going, Quatre might not continue on as CEO.

"Grieve?"

"I was involved in an accident a number of years ago and when I woke up I learned that my husband Seis was killed--"

Something stirred in Heero's mind at that name. Seis. He remembered Trant Clark, that OZ officer who was obsessed with ZERO for some reason Heero still couldn't fathom, mentioning him at one point while he was testing out the ZERO System and its capabilities. But there had to be something else, some other reason why that name felt so...close. He made a mental note to do some research later. She opened her mouth as if to say more on the subject, but then closed it, took a considerable pause, and sighed.

"I'm sorry. I don't know why I mentioned it. It's just...you remind me of someone I used to know."

"It's fine. It happens." _Sometimes a trigger is pulled in your head and things you kept bottled up come bubbling out._ "What did you do before you came here?"

"I managed at a flower shop for a number of years, once I was out of the hospital and out on my own again. The place ended up closing due to lack of money--it didn't make a lot and there weren't many workers who were consistent, so I've been drifting from place to place in search of work."

"Do you have experience as a cashier?"

She nodded. "That was my primary job when I wasn't stocking flowers or making deliveries some days when our usual delivery boy wasn't available..."

"And you've dealt with high stress environments before?" Heero asked.

"That job wasn't stressful, but my duties in OZ are another story entirely. I can handle stress just fine."

Heero scribbled a few notes onto his sheet.

"When can you start?"

Aoi shrugged. "Immediately."

"How immediate is 'immediately'?"

She stared at him. "I can start today if you need."

_Well that's certainly 'immediately'._

Heero yelled to Dottie, "Do you have any new hires ready for orientation?"

Heero heard the shuffling of papers.

"I have six or so I can call in for an orientation if you need, Mr Yuy."

Heero cringed. Dottie, for whatever reason, not only called him by surname and honorific, but she 'chewed' it, so it sounded more like 'yew-ee'.

"It's just Heero, Dottie. The politician's been dead for a number of years now." He looked at Aoi. "If you can start today, I can have Dottie bring in a few others and have an orientation in...about an hour or so."

She nodded. "That's fine. I can wait here."

"We have a Golden Arches and a Roarin' Krispies Créme de Doughnuts if you wanna eat something. Dottie'll need you to fill out some more paperwork, but until then..."

He stood, and she did as well, her hand extended.

"It was nice meeting you, Heero," she said.

"Likewise." He shook her hand before gathering his things. He turned to head back to Dottie with his notes when he noticed that Aoi had made, out of one of the many information sheets a potential new hire was given, an origami crane.

_That's an interesting nervous habit_ , he thought. _The only person I know who made cranes was my mother._

His mother, who died in a rebel attack years ago.

Or at least he was about 99 percent sure of that. He hadn't exactly done the most thorough job of trying to find family post-war. What was the point? It was better if they thought he was dead. Wasn't it? After all, if anyone _was_ left, wouldn't they have tried looking for him?

_Then again, how do I know they haven't? I don't go by that name anymore._

* * *

Heero barely put his key in the door of his apartment before the door flew open and there, in the doorway, was Duo, grinning ear to ear. Heero blinked, key still in hand, still poised to unlock the door.

_Oh. Right. Duo's moving day was today._ Heero was no longer alone.

"Hey." Duo gestured inside. "Wanna come in?"

Heero stepped inside, toeing off his shoes by the door before hanging his keys up on the appropriately labeled hook.

"What, no hello or nothin'?" Duo pouted in mock disappointment. "I busted my ass makin' sure that this place was all nice and clean for when you got home and you don't even care. Man! Why do I even--"

Heero kissed him.

"Now _that's_ what I call a hello," Duo murmured when Heero pulled away. "So. How was work? Nothin' on fire I hope?" He flopped onto the couch before propping his bare feet up on the coffee table.

"There was a fire in the Golden Arches earlier, but outside of that the store itself is fine." Heero loosened his tie. "I hired five new cashiers and Dottie called in six people for the orientation, so hopefully by next week I'll have replacements in place."

Duo cocked an eyebrow as he watched Heero unbutton his dress shirt.

"Replacements?"

"Yeah." He shrugged off his shirt, leaving him in a navy blue tank top. "I'm cleaning house, starting with the front end. I've got apparel to think about too and I'll probably clean house there too, but I need to have people in place and ready to go out on the floor before I can do anything drastic."

"It's Preventers all over again," Duo mused. "You came onboard the team, suddenly ten new people showed up and ten people were out the door."

"Yeah, and if it wasn't for me, Bravo Team would've never recovered after that incident where one my partner, whose back they were supposed to have, nearly _died_."

Duo winced at the memory as Heero went into the kitchen and looked in the fridge.

"Did you eat yet?"

"I ain't eaten yet, no. Kat went to do a food shop since he saw you got like what, two things in there? But I'm okay with takeout or pizza."

It took Heero a second or two to parse what the hell a 'food shap' was. Being away from him for a few years meant he'd lost some of his ability to decipher Duo's L2 accent. It was Duo's way of saying 'food shop', as in a grocery store.

_I'm too tired for this._

Heero closed the fridge before texting Kat. "I really wanted to cook for you. You know. Like old times. Something quick and easy."

"When we first lived together we lived off MREs and Chinese takeout. It's fine. You don't gotta be fancy or nothing."

"Quatre's given an ETA of ten minutes. I asked him to pick up a few more things. I'm in the mood for comfort food tonight."

Duo's feet slid from the coffee table to the floor. He sat up straighter on the couch.

"You okay?"

Heero sat next to him. "I don't know. I feel...numb, I guess, and I don't know why. Like something is missing."

"That's normal though, your body's trying to adjust to not having booze every two seconds every day. I'm here, and Kat'll be here in like, two minutes, and we're gonna have good food and--"

"Duo," Heero interrupted, his voice softer than normal. "You don't understand. This feeling is _why_ I drank. This...emptiness, it gets overwhelming sometimes." For the first time in a long time, Heero rested against Duo's arm, put all of his weight on him; Duo welcomed it with an open arm and wrapped it around his shoulder.

"If it don't get better, we'll get you to see someone, yeah? Before it gets serious or leads to something. I'll google some shit, okay?"

Heero's voice was muffled, his face buried in Duo's neck. "Duo--"

"I gots this, 'Ro." He smiled, nuzzled Heero a little. "Let me cook tonight. You're exhausted."

Heero didn't reply; he was already asleep against Duo's shoulder.


End file.
